{"id":2230,"date":"2020-01-31T02:52:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T23:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kusuaks7\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2024-01-19T17:34:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T17:34:52","slug":"api-economy-is-it-the-next-big-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/bigdata-cloud\/api-economy-is-it-the-next-big-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"API Economy: Is It The Next Big Thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAPIs (Application programming interfaces) have been around for decades.\u00a0\u201cThey allow different systems to talk to each other in a seamless, fast fashion,\u201d said Gary Hoberman, who is the CEO of\u00a0Unqork<\/a>.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYet it\u2019s been during the past decade that this technology has become a major force.\u00a0For example, in early 2019 Salesforce.com shelled out $6.5 billion for MuleSoft, a management system for APIs. \u00a0Then there was another notable deal that actually was announced this week:\u00a0Visa agreed to pay $5.3 billion for Plaid (here\u2019s my post about the acquisition in\u00a0Forbes.com<\/a>).\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSo then why all the interest in APIs?\u00a0Well, one of the most important reasons is the secular growth in cloud computing, which has led to the need for integration.\u00a0Just look at the Uber app.\u00a0A large part of the underlying technology is not even created by the company\u2014but is instead called from APIs!\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cAPIs enable companies to more easily build products and services that would otherwise take too long to build,\u201dsaid Augusto \u201cAghi\u201d Marietti, who is the CEO of\u00a0Kong<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cDevelopers can use these APIs to more easily access business-critical information and focus on other priorities instead.\u201d\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis is not to imply that APIs are a cure-all.\u00a0No technology is.\u00a0\u201cThe world is on course to having a trillion programmable endpoints,\u201d said Tyler Jewell, the managing director at\u00a0Dell Technologies Capital<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThe momentum behind containers, serverless, multi-cloud and APIs is increasing into this year, so the world will probably double the number of endpoints that are generated. This is going to create all sorts of new problems that need to be solved: autonomous management of APIs, ML-assisted development tools to improve coder productivity, new programming languages and cloud abstractions to remove complexity.\u201d\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDespite all this, APIs still have many benefits\u2014and will likely be critical for digital transformation.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“The prospects for the API economy are exponential,” said Bernard Harguindeguy, who is the CTO at\u00a0Ping Identity<\/a>. “APIs are creating powerful ways for businesses to streamline how they engage with partners and together deliver new generations of applications that empower consumers with more services and options.”\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Jeff Lawson And Twilio<\/h3><\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOne of the pioneers of the API economy is Jeff Lawson, who is the co-founder and CEO of\u00a0Twilio<\/a>. \u00a0In 2008, he pitched Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures,\u00a0saying<\/a>: \u201cWe have taken the entire messy and complex world of telephony and reduced it to five API calls.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nWilson was naturally skeptical but listened.\u00a0Lawson asked for his phone number and wrote some code\u2014and then sent a message to him.\u00a0Wilson was blown away and said: \u201cYou can stop there.\u00a0That\u2019s amazing.\u201d\u00a0He would go on to say it was the best seed pitch he\u2019d ever heard.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nTwilio has certainly come a long way since then.\u00a0In the latest quarter, revenues soared by 75% to $295.1 million and the market cap is about $16.4 billion.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBefore creating Twilio, Lawson worked as a technical product manager at Amazon, where he saw how APIs were critical for AWS.\u00a0He also worked at several other startups where there was lots of heavy-lifting in creating new applications.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cWith web services, you can go from idea to prototype quickly,\u201d said Lawson.\u00a0\u201cBecause of this, developers can focus on what customers really want.\u00a0It\u2019s why we are seeing an explosion of startups.\u201d\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut the megatrend of the API Economy is not just about tech companies either.\u00a0\u201cEvery company is becoming a software company,\u201d said Lawson.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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How APIs Can Transform An Industry<\/h3><\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSteven Wang grew up in China and then came to the US to get his PhD in computer science.\u00a0He would work at several companies and then start is his own, called\u00a0Measure Square<\/a>.\u00a0The idea was a practical one.\u00a0His wife, who worked at a flooring company, said her boss wanted to find a way to automate some of the manual processes.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nSo Wang built a program that worked quite well. And so he quit his job to start his own software company.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut it was far from easy.\u00a0\u201cWe made lots of mistakes along the way,\u201d said Wang.\u00a0\u201cOne was developing software on Java.\u00a0Another was relying on outsourcing.\u201d\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOh, and he did not have any external funding.\u00a0Measure Square was a pure bootstrap.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nBut he was persistent and the company has since become a leader in the flooring industry, with thousands of customers, including Sherwin Williams, Redi Carpet, Daltile and RiteRug.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThe technology world is very dynamic,\u201d said Wang. \u201cYou can\u2019t sit still. So a few years ago we completely revamped our technology infrastructure to allow for an API platform.\u00a0It was a major undertaking and a big risk. But we are also very customer-centric and knew that this was the right strategy.\u201d\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\nAs of today, the Measure Square cloud logs 2.5 million API calls per month that streamline accurate estimates and integrate with Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Rollmaster, and QPros.\u00a0There are also deployments for Lowe\u2019s installers (covering more than 750 stores).\u00a0There is even an API that leverages AI (Artificial Intelligence) for automatic plan takeoffs.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cWe are still in the early stages,\u201d said Wang.\u00a0\u201cThe APIs have also made it easier to roll out new products, such as PropertyLink\u2014which is for hosting property measurement plans\u2014and JobTrakr, an app that empowers large commercial users to track their job productions on construction sites with exact 3D models.\u00a0No doubt, APIs have been a game changer for us.\u201d\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APIs (Application programming interfaces) have been a game-changer. Though APIs have been around for decades, but during the past decade, this technology has become a major force. APIs create powerful ways for businesses to streamline how they engage with partners and together deliver new generations of applications that empower consumers with more services and options. APIs enable companies to more easily build products and services that would otherwise take too long to build. The prospects for the API economy are exponential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":3542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[95],"ppma_author":[3440],"class_list":["post-2230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigdata-cloud","tag-big-data-amp-technology"],"authors":[{"term_id":3440,"user_id":667,"is_guest":0,"slug":"tom-taulli","display_name":"Tom Taulli","avatar_url":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/medium_63f5f357-f6ae-4999-b3f4-ed30406eb86c-150x150.jpg","user_url":"http:\/\/www.taulli.com\/","last_name":"Taulli","first_name":"Tom","job_title":"","description":"Tom Taulli is an author, speaker, and advisor \u2013 with a focus primarily on technology. He has co-founded a variety of\u00a0companies, including Hypermart.net (sold to InfoSpace), WebIPO and BizEquity. He is also a contributor to Forbes.com, Bloomberg.com, Kiplinger and BusinessWeek. \u00a0He has also written a variety of books, mostly on tech and finance.\u00a0 His latest is\u00a0Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction<\/a>. \u00a0As of now, he is an advisor to some awesome startups."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2230"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35569,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions\/35569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}