This chapter delivered a comprehensive and business-oriented explanation on the value of APIs, and the reasons why they are a must in any digital strategy.
The chapter started by describing why and how digital disruptors are taking the industry by surprise, and the impact this is having on more established and traditional organizations, many of which are struggling to cope with the pace of change, and the level of innovations being introduced.
To this end, the chapter explained the true meaning of disruption and why understanding it is extremely important for successfully creating a digital strategy, and then embarking on a digital transformation journey.
In this same context, it was highlighted that gaining real-time access to an organization's enterprise information assets (many of which are locked in legacy systems) holds the key to success and, without this, a digital strategy's chances of success will be minimal.
The chapter continued by describing and positioning APIs as the means to deliver such access, and thus act as an enabler to digital strategies. It was described in great detail how APIs can add value to a business, for example, by allowing the business to monetize information assets, comply with new regulations, and also enable innovation by simply providing access to business capabilities previously locked in old systems.
Subsequently, an API value chain was introduced, illustrating a business-centric API maturity model suitable for use as reference when embarking on an API implementation initiative.
The chapter concluded by describing how the software industry is reacting as some of the largest software vendors in the world make major acquisitions in the API space.
In the next chapter, a more technical point of view will be described, which explains how and why the technologies and platforms used to implement APIs have evolved from simple web proxies to third-generation API platforms.