Time to jump in the API train
API economy is rising, they say. APIs can positively affect an organization’s profitability, they say. Companies as SalesForce, Ebay, Flickr and Facebook are mentioned to be the pioneers. All the new start-ups at IT field have their own APIs. Big corporates are taking over API platforms. But still, year 2016 in Finland, country of technology and Nokia, when we ask from our potential customers if they are interested about API Management, the usual answers is “What is an API?”
APIs are basically interfaces. They allow your product or service to talk to another product or service. And they are used to give people access to your data. So with APIs you can open your product’s data to others. Still too complicated? It’s not really, we deal with APIs every day, even without knowing it. For example using Twitter app and writing some search words or hashtags in the search field makes you already API-user. By opening their data (APIs) a bus company helps developers to develop a cool app which gives you the time schedules and routes of the buses and even shows them on a map. Clever, ha?
A long time ago — and yet perhaps it wasn’t such a very long time ago –company called AccuWeather was established. They provide hourly weather forecasts for any longitude or latitude on Earth, with customized content and engaging video presentations.
In the beginning of AccuWeather’s career, more than 50 years ago, meteorologists painstakingly plotted weather data from widely scattered observation sites and analysed weather maps by hand. Nowadays AccuWeather’s forecasts and services are based on weather information derived from numerous sources, including satellites, radar, numerous computer models, weather observations and data gathered by meteorological organizations. Every day over a billion people worldwide rely on AccuWeather to help them plan their lives, protect their businesses, and get more from their day.
So what, why am I writing about this? We all know how technology has changed the world and the digitalisation era is doing the same. Yes. But do we all understand, that one of the key words in future companies success is APIs? APIs can also change the world. With the help of APIs companies are really changing the way they develop their services and deliver their products. APIs can be new products that a company offers in order to open up new business channels, or to sell more of its traditional products or services. How do you think AccuWeather gets the weather data? How do you think developers can use the AccuWeather to add severe weather alerts, daily and hourly forecasts, current conditions, and other weather-related functions to their applications?
Are you still confused with all this API hype and still keep thinking that is this something I could use at our company, should we be using APIs? Friendly tip, don’t be embarrassed to ask help or consultation. One way to get started is to stop by at our website apinf.org. This might be the next step in your company’s growth strategy, and you don’t want to miss it. Just get it done. I can’t change my car’s winter tires either, and that is perfectly ok, I let professionals to do it. You can’t be good in everything!
