API Management is an emerging trend for 2018 as organizations discover their versatility, cost savings, and business value. According to Carl 
Lehmann of 451 Research, the stage is set as the availability of holistic API strategies provide the ability to roll out programs supporting initiatives including the Internet of Things (IoT) or voice interfaces. Opportunity is ripe too, with over 19,000 available APIs according to the Programmable Web.
If your organization is looking to capitalize on APIs this year, here are a few trends to keep in mind.
Hybrid Integration Drives iPaaS and API Adoption
Google’s acquisition of Apigee in 2016 served as a banner moment for API management and the momentum has not stopped, primarily driven by a business need for hybrid integration. Served by iPaaS platforms, these connectors also provide big data analytics, data management, and event management for more in-depth data capture.
The premise of these integrations is also to capture critical metadata, which helps improve performance and workloads. Down the line, this also provides the right resources for organizations to tie in their APIs with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
APIs Are Not Standalone
Many organizations manage their private and public APIs separately, but with so many already used, that trend is beginning to change. To truly gain value from an API portfolio, organizations must look for ways to automate their API processes in a cohesive end-to-end experience for creation, development, testing, publishing, and retirement.
Even more important, organizations must manage their public and private APIs together for full lifecycle management. In this scenario, API management begins to resemble frameworks already in place for infrastructure and application management. While this doesn’t require a purchase of a new platform, it does call for a uniform set of tools.
Expansion towards Other Supported Trends
With application development witnessing an extensive overhaul, there is reasonable cause to believe that APIs will play a deeper role in areas such as microservices. Capabilities evolving in this area stand to serve orchestration via API gateways or microservices gateways, accelerating the development of applications overall.
Master Your API Management
Are you looking to understand how APIs can help scale your organization? Reach out to one of our specialists today for a conversation at www.perficient.com.
