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The What, Why, and How of APIs | @DevOpsSummit #API #DevOps #WebPerf

For over a decade, Application Programming Interface or APIs have been used to exchange data between multiple platforms

The What, Why, and How of APIs
By Kameerath Kareem

For over a decade, Application Programming Interface or APIs have been used to exchange data between multiple platforms. From social media to news and media sites, most websites depend on APIs to provide a dynamic and real-time digital experience. APIs have made its way into almost every device and service available today and it continues to spur innovations in every field of technology.

There are multiple programming languages used to build and run applications in the online world. And just like every other language, there is always the need for an interpreter when trying to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you.  This is where APIs come into play, APIs act like the interpreter helping different independent services interact and interpret the data shared with each other.

APIs Everywhere
The buzz around APIs continues to grow and the implementation possibilities are endless –

  • Data aggregators: APIs help gather data from multiple sources, for example: applications that provides stock market data or news feeds that are updated regularly.
  • Mobile Applications: Smartphones have made its way into every demography and is no longer a luxury. With almost everyone owning a smartphone, the number of mobile applications available to users today has exploded. To become a major player in the market, it has become necessary to provide APIs that integrates seamlessly with every kind of device over any type of network.
  • Social Media: APIs are the driving force behind the popularity of some of the biggest Social Media applications – from Facebook to Instagram. It has made it possible for different application to share data including media files easily.
  • Data Analysis: With the amount of data uploaded, stored and shared over the internet today, it is impossible to sift through everything and make sense of what is involved. This has led to several new applications that aim to connect multiple platforms and provide a single dashboard view of the data. These applications make it easy to understand and analyze trends over time.
  • IOT: The Internet of Things is the future of technology – a fully interconnected environment where multiple devices “talk” and share data with each other using APIs. Here is an interesting article detailing the architecture of IoT devices and how APIs play a major role in enabling IoT.

What’s Involved
APIs a are designed to offer flexibility and ease of integration so that developers can build complex application without worrying about usability. Web based APIs work over HTTP and is built using SOAP or REST protocols. HTTP requests/responses are used to exchange data; the data is formatted based on the API design so that it can be interpreted by the client application.

In short, APIs define the entire process of initiating a connection between the server and the client, formatting the data in a pre-defined structure and then exchanging the data between the server and client. Download our new eBook to learn the basics of APIs and to understand why as API monitoring strategy is a must in today’s digital world.

The post The What, Why, and How of APIs appeared first on Catchpoint's Blog - Web Performance Monitoring.

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More Stories By Mehdi Daoudi

Catchpoint radically transforms the way businesses manage, monitor, and test the performance of online applications. Truly understand and improve user experience with clear visibility into complex, distributed online systems.

Founded in 2008 by four DoubleClick / Google executives with a passion for speed, reliability and overall better online experiences, Catchpoint has now become the most innovative provider of web performance testing and monitoring solutions. We are a team with expertise in designing, building, operating, scaling and monitoring highly transactional Internet services used by thousands of companies and impacting the experience of millions of users. Catchpoint is funded by top-tier venture capital firm, Battery Ventures, which has invested in category leaders such as Akamai, Omniture (Adobe Systems), Optimizely, Tealium, BazaarVoice, Marketo and many more.

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