Clean Water, APIs, and the Internet of (not-so-smart) Things
What would your world look like without application programming interfaces (APIs)?
If you’re not sure, you could use Google to find an answer or ask the digital assistant on your smartphone — but only if our hypothetical “world without APIs” remain hypothetical. Without APIs, you can’t actually do either of those things.
As tens of thousands of people prepare to pour into Las Vegas to see the latest and greatest technologies at CES, and as enterprises continue to invest in the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and other increasingly complicated systems, APIs are more crucial than ever.
APIs are the way software talks to other software — and how developers leverage digital assets from a variety of disparate sources to create rich, cohesive connected experiences. APIs are essentially invisible yet permeate our daily lives.
When you buy something with an app? APIs. When your smartphone securely authenticates a service? Also APIs. When you get real-time weather and stock data? Still APIs. How about when baby monitors were hacked? APIs, among other things, too (though not the kind APIs you want in your life).
As we salivate over the newest, most eye-opening technology, we have to be mindful of how the APIs working behind the scenes are managed.
How We Access Information Matters
When I was in high school, I heard a story about a town whose water supply sat on a hill beyond a nearby forest. The townspeople paid an old man to live in a hut near the reservoir and keep it free of debris. After a few years enjoying clean water, the town council decided they didn’t need to employ the old man any longer. The water was problem-free, after all. A few months later, people began to get sick.
The town benefitted from and was protected by something they couldn’t directly see. People bathed, showered, cooked, and drank from the faucets, but didn’t interact directly with the old man or the reservoir.
We might think this quaint little story has nothing to do with new products at CES, let alone the devices, apps, and services we already use today — but many of us are similar to the townspeople, using technology like a faucet that pours out data and images. It falls to the unseen caretakers — to the APIs — to ensure our faucets don’t produce contaminated information or get so gummed up that they don’t produce anything at all.
Like it or not, we live in a connected world. The information pouring forth from our phones and computers is no longer a gimmick or mere convenience; it is the material upon which we base our decisions, interact with friends, and perform our jobs. The mistake we make is in assuming the faucet — the component with which we actually interact — is what protects us and produces clean water.
Think about some of those devices at CES. Many will have smooth user interfaces. Some will enable novel use cases, bringing digital intelligence to objects and experiences that have traditionally lacked them. A variety will likely forge connections that exchange data and images between entirely new types of devices. But for all these visible appeals, what about the hidden ones?
How many of these devices use APIs whose keys are well-managed, helping to ensure that, unlike those baby monitors, your data stays safe? How many of them analyze API behavior to differentiate real users from bots? How many of them use other real-time API metrics to ensure their apps are performing well and to learn how the product using the API can be improved?
How we access information matters — and that means the way businesses manage their APIs, whether connecting to consumer devices or enterprise software, matters too.
An API management system, in short, is how businesses can ensure that requests to various underlying systems are clean, protected, and fast, just as the old man protected water flowing from the reservoir. It enables modern devices and form factors to draw from the legacy waters. It can keep everyone so healthy and happy that they tend to forget it exists. But if we make the same mistake as the townspeople, we’ll soon get sick of the quality, speed, and security of the information we receive. Worse, we may not receive anything at all.
