REST API Notes for 2015/09/15
Hello again! I hope everyone had a chance to squeeze every last drop of sunshine from these waning days of summer. The final vacations and tawny lawns of August have given way to packed school lunches and looming leaf avalanches. Personally, I've moved my family across the country, started a new job, and have been trying to catch my breadth ever since.
INVESTMENT INTO API TOOLS CONTINUES
Just because my summer has been a whirlwind, however, doesn't mean that the API notes have stopped. August many notable investments into API tool providers. The first was $6.8 million going to Apiary, a startup focusing on tools for building APIs. The second saw Intel sell early API management darling it had acquired in 2013, Mashery, to Tibco. Meanwhile, Apigee's IPO was priced at $17 per share.
I'm not a financial guy. However, these recent events seem to demonstrate investor belief that the API space is still growing.
MICROSERVICE LESSONS
We've talked about microservices before. We rarely, however, get detailed nuance from the people practicing them at scale. Phil Calçado, formerly of SoundCloud, does a great job of rectifying the situation. He provides some great personal insights about the power (and pitfalls) of adopting this architectural API pattern.
DESIGN DRIVEN API DEVELOPMENT
Looking at much of what is published about RESTful APIs, I still see a number of developers still wrestling with what descriptive languages like Swagger and RAML can do for them. Some confusion stems from the perception that documentation is an artifact written or generated after the fact. Sokichi Fujita has a succinct slide deck available that demonstrates design-driven API development. Shifting the documentation from being something available on a portal to an essential, upfront piece of the development process is a big perceptual shift. However, it has the potential to identify flaws in an interface prior to expensive development work being done.
API SECURITY
While we're talking about slides, Les Hazlewood has a new version of his REST API Security deck available. Les has talked about API security for years. As API continue to power new growth sectors like IoT and Big Data, properly securing a companies interface to the world will become an increasing priority.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Next week I'll be in London for the APIDays, Open Banking and Fintech Conference. If you'll be there or in the area let me know - I'd love to meet you and find out what you're working on.
Also, be sure to check out webAPI.events for a curated list of available events in your area. If you've got one that should be there I'd be happy to hear about it. Just shoot me an email with the details.
Until next time,
Matthew (@libel_vox)