“On the sixth day of Christmas, my IT guy gave to me, 6 API integrations”
Google’s acquisition of API platform company Apigee this year signaled the arrival of connectivity as a legitimate business strategy. The deal, valued at $625 million dollars, underscored just how important APIs have become as organizations look to foster ecosystems that empower the development complementary technologies that further business use cases. You can read more about our analysis by my colleague Alexandra Haefele, here.
Deals aside, the market for APIs is expected to continue to grow as we move forward into 2017. According to IDC’s FutureScape predictions for 2017, 55% of business applications by 2020 will direct access to most applications, while monolithic applications will decompose into microservices exposed via APIs. Research firm Gartner echoes these sentiments, adding that APIs will be critical as devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) sector are developed and require cross sharing of communications and data.
If you’re still sitting on the fence on APIs, 2017 is the perfect time to hop off and get into the game. Here are some reasons for consideration:
- Understanding Customer Behavior: Individual platforms alone are helpful for driving business and understanding customer behavior. For example, ridesharing applications are not only able to help end-users hail a cab, but also inform the business of where they work, live, or engage with others socially. These give organizations the power to deliver more targeted products.
- User Retention: The name of the game is network effects, and APIs help achieve these by tying into social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. When users connect with a social network compared to re-entering email, name, and contact information repeatedly, convenience is achieved for both ends. Dominant API platforms and their associated network effects enable the retention of user information while extending their reach.
- Expansion of Ecosystem: APIs provide the opportunity for deeper technology expansion. For example, a home-sharing organization could extend their API to points of attraction including museums, theme parks, movie theaters, and so forth.
- Product Richness: Finally, APIs add value to product richness. While past applications functioned on their own, the new paradigm of applications include features that tie back to social networks, email, calendar, and partner applications to further create user retention and dwell time.
Are you looking at how to integrate APIs into your DevOps needs for 2017? Reach out to us at sales@perficient.com and let’s get a conversation going before the new year.
Learn more about our DevOps and API partnerships here
