The Business Advantage of Custom APIs

As companies compete to deliver the best services and customer experiences, they are increasingly thwarted by data access difficulties.

This problem has increased with the explosion in options for capturing and storing information. A company may have data strewn between public clouds, private clouds and on-premises servers, and at the same time be managing access by a wide variety of devices ranging from phones and tablets, to watches and computers.

APIs (Application Programmer Interfaces) are used to provide controlled access to this disparate information. APIs open data to different platforms, databases and devices, easing the natural exchange of information. While APIs may be included in an application, they can be limited in scope and often there is simply no API to meet the requirement. For this reason, there is a growing business imperative for custom, purpose-designed APIs.

The Need for Custom APIs

APIs don’t simply connect data. An API can also be used to set permissions, conduct specific searches, ensure secure access, or even trigger other procedures. This makes APIs an integral part of today's business solutions, often crucial for the delivery of a unique on-line service or experience, and a custom API is frequently the only way to get the desired result.

The growing requirement for APIs is well documented. Deloitte, for instance, calls APIs a strategic mandate, and the graph below show how quickly the market for API management is expanding. Market analysts are in agreement: The API market is huge and will only get bigger over the next few years.

New API Development Tools

Of course, custom APIs need to be developed rapidly and cost effectively to provide a competitive advantage, and fortunately there are many recent advancements that make this possible.

First, API developers are adopting techniques that let APIs add value to the data shuffling process by extending API functionality. For an excellent description of current API design trends take a look at Kristopher Sandoval’s recent article. which provides examples of recent API evolution.

This transformation is largely due to changes in the tools and services now available for building APIs. Microsoft Azure, for instance, supports API development in many different programming languages, and incorporates features such as simple authentication and enterprise-grade security. Once the API is in place, it is available for apps such as Microsoft Flow, Power Apps, and Power BI, and can be fully administered with Microsoft Azure’s comprehensive API Management environment.

Microsoft Azure also offers Cognitive Services, a set of technologies that can add intelligence to the API in the areas of speech, vision, search, knowledge and language.

In addition to a wealth of functionality, centering API development on a platform such as Microsoft Azure has two distinct advantages. It introduces a future-proof element to the final solution, and makes development, deployment and maintenance faster, easier and cheaper.

A Typical Custom API

In reality there is no typical application for a custom API, which in many ways is the whole point. A purpose-designed API should reflect a Company’s unique processes and business proposition, and confer an individualized advantage. While details vary across different API projects, however, there are several common elements that can be leveraged.

For instance, at Fluent Azure we find that custom APIs are often used to deliver Partner Services requiring selective access to information. One of our recent projects, as an example, involved locating information in a Realty Adviser's cloud based data pool and then making it available to a major Financial Institution for download and analysis. Challenges included accommodating security profiles to provide very specific data access and reformatting selected information to meet the client’s local application formats,

Because these types of issues are typical, Fluent Azure has developed efficiencies that can be carried forward to new projects, allowing us to develop APIs inexpensively and quickly.

The Future of Custom APIs

Custom APIs will continue to give companies data cohesion and business opportunities for the foreseeable future, however choosing the correct development approach is imperative. Experience in both API development and a range of relevant tools, environments and methodology is needed for intelligent, cost-efficient API solutions. Whatever approach you choose, one thing is clear.

Doing more of the same is no longer a competitive option.