API infrastructure and API management

Glossary

"API infrastructure and API management"

This glossary explains various keywords that will help you understand the mindset necessary for data utilization and successful DX.
This time, we will explain "API infrastructure" and "API management," which are the foundations for IT utilization that are attracting attention in the cloud era, and through that, we will think about what kind of IT will be necessary in the future.

What is API infrastructure and API management?

An API Platform is a platform environment equipped with a variety of functions to facilitate the provision and use of APIs. It provides functions required for the publication and use of APIs, such as API authentication and management functions.
In particular, when releasing an API to a wide range of users, such as those outside the company, in addition to developing the functions you want to provide as an API, you may also need to prepare peripheral functions such as authentication and management functions.
The API platform provides an environment where you do not have to prepare the peripheral functions required for API utilization yourself, making API development and publication efficient, safe, and secure, and also making API use smooth.

What is an API?

API is an abbreviation for "Application Programming Interface." Just as a mouse or keyboard is provided as an interface for humans to use a computer, an API is an interface provided to allow external applications to use the functions and data of applications or cloud services.

There is also an explanatory article on the API itself
⇒ API | Glossary Vol.6 | Saison Technology

The great possibilities created by utilizing APIs

The great potential of "API utilization" has been attracting a lot of attention recently.

As digitalization advances in business, IT is becoming more prevalent in everyday life, efforts are being made to directly collaborate between companies using IT, and cloud services are becoming more widely used. As the use of IT advances, there is a growing demand for "IT utilization across a wider range" rather than just using IT closed off to individual applications or cloud services. In this context, APIs are expected to be "one of the means to connect and utilize various IT resources."

Ability to combine and use various IT resources, such as the cloud

By utilizing APIs, you can realize "IT utilization that combines various IT resources." For example, you can automatically link customer information on kintone with sales negotiation information on Salesforce. When you want to call and use a cloud service from outside, you basically use it via API.

It may be possible to realize the necessary IT systems "more efficiently than by building them."

In traditional system development, there was a tendency to create new functions each time a required function was needed. However, by making good use of IT resources that can be called via APIs, it is possible to efficiently create the required IT system without having to create everything by making good use of "existing functions and data that can be called from APIs."

You can reuse your own IT resources

By making the functions and data of your company's IT systems available externally as APIs, you can effectively reuse them as IT assets. Furthermore, it becomes easier to realize more advanced initiatives, such as linking your company's systems with other companies' systems or combining your company's systems with cloud services.

A means to achieve "loose coupling" and "silo-free IT"

It can be used as a means to achieve a "loosely coupled" state, which is considered to be a good state for organizations and IT systems, or as a means to eliminate a "siloed" state.

⇒Loose coupling | Glossary Vol.12 | Saison Technology

⇒Siloization | Glossary Vol.11 | Saison Technology

It is possible to realize "widely coordinated IT" such as cross-company cooperative relationships.

By making the functions and data of your company's IT systems available to other companies and customers as APIs and making them available for external use, it becomes easier to realize collaborative IT utilization across companies.

For example, if each company in a supply chain were to publish its own API and create a situation where they could call and use each other's, it would be possible to create an "API ecosystem" across the entire supply chain. Collaboration between companies through APIs can create new economic value and new business opportunities, creating what could be called an "API economy."

I want to use APIs, but there are many challenges to overcome.

A simple understanding of an API is that it abstracts IT resources in the form of an API and makes them available to external IT systems. From this image, it seems that if you make your company's resources public as APIs, they will become available to external parties, and that alone opens up many of the possibilities we have introduced so far.

However, in reality, this is not enough. Simply publishing it as an API leaves many problems unresolved, such as the following:

For the user: calling an API isn't always easy

The fact that an API is public means that it is "possible" to call it, but it does not necessarily mean that it is "easy to use." Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for an API to be unusable. In order to use an API, you may need to read the API specification, understand its complex behavior, and then implement a call process that corresponds to that complex behavior.

Furthermore, API specifications may change over time (newer versions may be released, features may be added or removed, etc.), which may require ongoing support in line with API updates.

User side: APIs may not be available for the functions you need or the resources you want to use.

There are cases where the function you want to use externally is not available as an API. Also, when you want to data integration with the contents of an Excel file that is widely used in the field, there are cases where the IT resource you want to use does not have an API.

Providers: It is difficult to properly develop and publish APIs.

Even if you simply release existing functions and data as an API, it is difficult to publish the API in a way that is easy for external parties to understand and use, and it tends to end up being difficult to use or lacking in functionality.

If you decide to add more functions to the API later, you may end up adding functions too quickly because the design did not take into account functional expansion, which can make the API difficult to understand. Publishing an API requires design skills and technical abilities.

Provider: Need to provide API and continue operation

The published API must be operated, maintained, and continued to be provided, which means that API management, operation, and administration are required.

It is necessary to check whether there are any problems with usage through logs, respond to increases or decreases in usage load, deal with situations where users of older versions remain mixed together, process billing if the release is for a fee, support smooth provision and use in situations where there are many APIs, and continuously develop and provide new versions to respond to new requests and problems that arise.

Provider: There may be more work involved than just the API itself

Providing an API requires continuous operational work. In particular, when releasing an open API that is not internal to an organization, it is necessary to have authentication functions, a function to set user permissions, a function to log who is using it and how, and even the preparation of easy-to-understand API specifications to encourage use of the API.

Provider: Security issues

APIs are essentially published on the Internet, which exposes them to malicious access such as hacking. Even in such an environment, measures must be taken to prevent unauthorized access and ensure that services can be provided and used safely and securely.

Such measures are costly and time-consuming, and may not be possible without the technical expertise.Compared to the benefits of releasing the API and the activities, it is necessary to consider whether to release the API or not, and if so, what functions and means to release it.

Provider: You have to create it in the first place

The fact that development work is required to make it public as an API is a major obstacle in the first place.

When providing or using APIs in an effort to create value in business, the people at the business site are the ones who know the situation best, but in many cases it is not realistic to expect the business site to use, develop, and provide APIs through programming themselves. The inconvenience of having to communicate your intentions to engineers and have them develop the API each time can make it difficult to make use of the API.

"API Platform" solves various problems in API utilization

There is great potential in utilizing APIs. However, when trying to provide an API, it turns out that the more you try to utilize it properly, the higher the hurdles become. An "API infrastructure" can help reduce these problems that arise when providing APIs.

Functions: The infrastructure provides the necessary infrastructure and peripheral functions for API provision.

By having the platform support the infrastructure and peripheral functions required for providing an API, it becomes possible to focus on "the work of creating the API itself." From the user's perspective, the API platform makes it easier to use because it allows them to use a well-organized API that has been properly developed down to the peripheral functions.

Specifically, the API platform supports functions required for API development, such as authentication functions, functions for setting user permissions and access rights, functions to support development and testing, support for developing APIs in accordance with standard specifications, and generation of specification documents that explain how to use the API.

Functions: Provides the functions required for API operation on the platform side

After developing and publishing an API, the infrastructure can also provide functions to support API operation and management during the operation stage.

For example, functions supported by an API infrastructure include the ability to record usage logs and manage usage, the ability to support billing for paid services, the ability to provide an environment for publishing APIs with security measures in place, the ability to handle large-scale usage and load fluctuations through caching and scaling, and the ability to manage the version management of APIs provided.

"Connecting" technology makes API use even more ideal

Using an API infrastructure makes using and developing APIs smoother, but what becomes even more problematic is the high hurdle of requiring programming just to create the API itself and use it.

This problem becomes even more serious when using APIs in business initiatives to achieve business results. For example, if the intention is to use APIs to create an IT infrastructure that can respond quickly and flexibly to business requests, it is not ideal to have to ask engineers to create or modify something every time something needs to be done.

However, there are solutions to these problems. By utilizing "connecting" technologies such as "EAI," "ETL," and "iPaaS," such as "DataSpider" and "HULFT Square," it is possible to "remove the assumption that programming is required," further lowering the hurdles to using APIs.

Can be used with GUI only

There is no need to write code like in normal programming. You can call the API by placing icons on the GUI and configuring them.

It's easy to use complex APIs, and we can handle version upgrades for you.

Some APIs require you to understand complex specifications before building them, making them difficult to use. Even after development, it can be difficult to keep up with future API updates. There are "dedicated connection adapters" that have been developed in advance to make it easier to use such APIs.

You can either understand the details of how to access the API yourself and create a full-scale project yourself, or you can leave it to a dedicated connection adapter that you can simply purchase and use easily.

It is now possible to use files that do not have public APIs, such as Excel files.

There may be cases where the data or function you want to access from outside does not have an API. For example, this is the case for Excel files used in the workplace or email attachments on your company's mail server. Access to a wide variety of systems and data, not just APIs, can be achieved smoothly with a dedicated connection adapter.

Fully usable with just a GUI

Unfortunately, there are many products that are easy to use with a GUI but can only do simple things, or that quickly become overloaded when you try to use them for full-scale business purposes. This product can be used with just a GUI, but can also be created with the same level of detail as full-scale programming, and has full-scale performance such as the ability to process large amounts of data at high speed, enough to serve as the foundation for business.

The created process can be published as an API

Once you have created a function that enables useful processing by "connecting" various IT resources, you can easily publish the function itself as an API.

The functions developed on the GUI in this way are often business-beneficial functions created by the business itself. If such functions are made public as APIs and can be freely used by both your company and other companies, the benefits will naturally be great.

No operation required as it is iPaaS

DataSpider can be operated securely under in-house management. With the cloud service (iPaaS) HULFT Square, the authentication and log acquisition functions required for secure API publishing are provided and operated by the service, so you don't have to create them yourself. In fact, the "connecting" technology itself can be used without the need for in-house operation, eliminating the hassle of installing and operating the "connecting" technology itself.

Related keywords (for further understanding)

Loose coupling
- Loose coupling refers to a state in which a system is made up of a combination of components, with little dependency between each component and a high degree of independence between them. This is a useful perspective when considering "how various systems should be," from IT systems to organizational structures.
EAI
- It is a concept of "connecting" systems by data integration, and is a means of freely connecting various data and systems. It is a concept that has been used since long before the cloud era as a way to effectively utilize IT.
ETL
- In the recent trend of actively working on data utilization, the majority of the work is not the data analysis itself, but rather the collection and preprocessing of data scattered around, from on-premise to cloud. This is a means to carry out such processing efficiently.
iPaaS
- A cloud service that "connects" various clouds with external systems and data simply by operating on a GUI is called iPaaS.

Are you interested in "iPaaS" and "connecting" technologies?

Try out our products that allow you to freely connect various data and systems, from on-premise IT systems to cloud services, and make successful use of IT.

The ultimate "connecting" tool: data integration software "DataSpider" and data integration platform "HULFT Square"

"DataSpider," data integration tool developed and sold by our company, is a "connecting" tool with a long history of success. "HULFT Square," a data integration platform, is a "connecting" cloud service developed using DataSpider technology.

Another feature is that development can be done using only the GUI (no code) without writing code like in regular programming, so business staff who have a good understanding of their company's business can take the initiative to use it.

Try outDataSpider/ HULFT Square 's "connecting" technology:

There are many simple collaboration tools on the market, but this tool can be used with just a GUI, is easy enough for even non-programmers to use, and has "high development productivity" and "full-fledged performance that can serve as the foundation for business (professional use)."

It can smoothly solve the problem of "connecting disparate systems and data" that is hindering successful IT utilization. We offer a free trial version and online seminars where you can try it out for free, so we hope you will give it a try.

Free product introduction seminar

Why not try a PoC to see if "HULFT Square" can transform your business?

Why not try verifying how "connecting" can be utilized in your business, the feasibility of solving problems using data integration, and the benefits that can be obtained?

I want to automate data integration with SaaS, but I want to confirm the feasibility of doing so.
We want to move forward with data utilization, but we have issues with system integration
I want to consider data integration platform to achieve DX.

PoC Program | HULFT Square