Recently, I was chatting with a group of colleagues – we were all complaining about doctors and waiting rooms, etc. During the conversation, I mentioned something that I thought was pretty interesting. Being over 40 and blonde hair/blue eyed, AND having spent my teens and 20s soaking up the sun, I’m basically putting my dermatologist’s children through…
Category: All API & Microservices Content
Modern API Description Formats
For many organizations, the days of undocumented APIs are mostly gone. There are now several formats used to describe APIs. These machine-readable files can be converted into documentation and even be used to test integrations. While there are several formats, the most well-known is OpenAPI. In this article, we’ll provide a highlight of that and…
Kafka Integration with API Management
Kafka messaging busses are becoming more prevalent in today’s enterprises. In this video, I briefly discuss why, and then demonstrate integration with an API management solution (using Layer7 as the example – if you use a different API management solution, this will likely have differences).
The Most Common API Authentication Methods
Unless your API is a public feed of read-only data, you likely need authentication. There are many options you could choose, which may vary depending on your use case. However, it’s unlikely you’ll need to go out and create your own authentication method. Whenever possible, use a standard that is widely implemented. Otherwise, developers will…
API Metrics with a Time Series Database
This blog examines the different ways to collect metrics on your APIs, and shows the value of Apache Druid as a time series database option.
API Authentication Best Practices
In this post, we’ll explore authentication methods, how to keep tokens safe, and what comes next.
API Certification News
Our third API Academy course: API Product Manager is out now! Learn how to make your APIs as easy as possible to consume by your core audience – the developers who will build on top of them. Get certified
What Are the Different Types of APIs?
In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the API types within these two distinctions, as well as a couple of things someone might mean when they say “API.” APIs are integral to all software projects, yet the acronym doesn’t have a singular meaning. Yes, it stands for “Application Programming Interface,” but people use that…
API Metrics: How to Measure Your Impact
Along with the business strategy comes the measurements you’ll use to determine success. In this post, we’ll consider three common categories of API metrics: Raw API Usage: Data on calls and users Business Value: An API’s value to your bottom line Innovation and Partnership: Value to longer term business goals Ideally these three areas of…
Three API Governance Patterns and How to Choose One
Most organizations maintain dozens or even hundreds of APIs. Maintaining consistency and avoiding redundancy quickly becomes a major issue. API governance helps organizations declare and adhere to guidelines for new and existing APIs. There are different approaches to encourage conformity in API design, including governance review and automated restrictions. In this post, we’ll explore both…