API Design

From API Craftsmanship to API Landscaping

Keynote from Nordic APIs 2018 Platform Summit in Stockholm, Sweden. Slide available here: http://dret.net/lectures/nordic-apis-2018/ Moving from designing and managing individual APIs to the successful management of large, diverse, and evolving API landscapes can be challenging. But it is a transition that is necessary to realize the value of API-centric organizations, where each and every product […]

A Design-based Approach to Microservices and APIs

Keynote talk from API World 2018 in San Jose, California Organizations around the world are transforming their core applications to expose microservices through APIs. The success of these efforts will depend less on the technologies themselves, and more on how well their deployment is aligned with the business goals of the organization. Join this session […]

How API Languages Evolve

As API systems mature, knowing the history and evolution of various API languages will help organizations create robust and successful landscapes. How (API) Languages Evolve APIs are languages: they specify how providers and consumers of capabilities communicate. The things that can be “said” in an API conversation are determined by the expressivity of the involved […]

Applying and Extending DHARMA

This post gives some practical examples of the DHARMA method for API Security in a Microservice Architecture, and also shares some opportunities for extending the model. This article shares concepts from the O’Reilly book Securing Microservice APIs. If you’re attending OSCON next week, Rob Wilson and Matt McLarty will be signing and giving away print copies during lunch […]

The Microservice Design Canvas

Learn how to apply a more traditional business canvas when designing microservices Microservices often have organic origins, emerging from the bubbling cauldron of existing monolithic applications to fill an immediate need. Given the desire for improved delivery speed that drive the adoption of microservices, developers often take a “code first, ask questions later†approach and […]

A Microservices Primer

The technical definition is….microservices are design patterns to turn complex applications into simple, fine-grained, reusable, and interoperable processes that can be modified and deployed independently of each other. Ok, a bit heavy…so let’s translate that, using some mental visuals.  Imagine you’re 30 years in the future and you have a great family home, Jetson’s style […]

API Descriptions

Listen to Erik Wilde and guest Kin Lane discuss API descriptions Show Notes Listen to our latest podcast featuring Academy member Erik Wilde and special guest, Kin Lane, as they weigh in on popular standards used to define and describe APIs including  Swagger (now the Open API specification), hypermedia, and how tools can support interface […]

Microservices, APIs and Innovation: The Power of APIs

Explore the role APIs play in empowering teams and enabling organizations to innovate. API Academy member Mike Amundsen shares his observations about the role APIs play in empowering teams and organizations to craft stable, cost-effective solutions for a wide range of distribution channels. In this article, part two of a three part series (you can read part […]

Announcing Our New Podcast Series

Follow the API Academy’s new podcast series. One of the best things about being in the API Academy is getting to be part of the internal conversations on everything related to APIs. Honest questions are asked, the status quo is challenged and there is a shared effort to gain understanding. I always learn something. We […]