Overview of API

What is API ?

             The API  means APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE, provides a comparison of APIs with the traditional web sites, and describes the values and benefits of using APIs.

            With an API, developers can exploit functions of existing computer programs in other applications. APIs have existed for a long time, since computer programming first started.

            Over the years, APIs have evolved based on advances in technology (such as network speed, security, and dynamic integration), and also maturation in business that allows for thinking of business functions as discreet, consumable entities. Competition is now possible for business functions based on business value as opposed to technology foundations.

           API architecture has also evolved over the years, most recently with the advent of service-oriented architecture (SOA). SOA provides for an architectural model to manage consumer and provider relationships in a dynamic environment. This paved the way for producing and exposing APIs with better business enablement capabilities including request access, entitlement, identification, authorization, management, monitoring, and analytics.

        Today, progressive companies are exposing APIs to allow others to consume their business functions, for a profit. Where Windows and Linux have been traditional development platforms of the past, Google, Facebook, Twitter and other companies are becoming the development platforms of the future. All of these companies built a functional platform of business capabilities and extended their business models by exposing APIs so that developers can exploit their functionality. Google Maps is a great example. Many developers write mashups on top of Google Maps for various reasons, for example retail store locator, traffic reports, road conditions, and so forth.

         The way we work and reach customers is evolving. Below fig. shows a fundamental shift from websites as being the information technology access mechanism for the majority of businesses, to the rapidly growing ecosystem of internconnected devices that require APIs to consume business function. Today, we have applications in cars, appliances, smartphones, game consoles, and other devices, that communicate with back-end business functions through APIs. APIs are enabling more and more devices to connect

This “interconnected revolution” is here today, as in the following examples:

• Refrigerators can tell their manufacturer services systems when maintenance is required.
• Cars can do the same with routine maintenance notification.
• Smart electric meters can provide usage and consumption information to the utility company.   

All of this is possible through APIs.