What trends for APIs does 2024 hold in store? We’ve gazed into the Tyk crystal ball and talked to our expert team to find out. Three key themes cropped up repeatedly during those conversations: observability, OpenTelemetry and the democratisation of APIs as they go mainstream.
Let’s explore why each of these will be crucial to the ongoing advancement of APIs in 2024.
Observability and the future of API monitoring
Observability isn’t a buzzword; it’s a fundamental necessity to get the best from your APIs and your business. Observability is simply about gathering data from systems and applications to gain insights. It goes beyond monitoring, blending it with analytics to provide an understanding of the ‘why’ behind your APIs’ behaviour.
Why does observability matter for APIs in 2024? Because it enables you to understand the health and usage of your APIs like never before. You can use those insights for smarter, data-driven decision-making as you grow your API products and business.
By taking a proactive approach to observability, you can dodge the perils of bad API observability and reap some significant rewards. These include:
- Proactive issue resolution: traditional monitoring often flags issues after they occur. Observability allows you to spot potential problems before they impact users.
- Enhanced user experience: by closely observing APIs, you can ensure they consistently meet performance and reliability standards, improving user satisfaction.
- Root cause analysis: when API issues arise, observability provides the necessary data to quickly pinpoint the underlying causes, reducing downtime and minimising the impact on users.
- Optimisation: observability data can identify inefficiencies in API operations, such as those around automation and the testing of API integrations and deployments, enabling continuous optimisation.
With observability top of mind for forward-thinking businesses in 2024, brace yourself for a surge in API observability tools, tips and practices to help you keep your APIs healthy and deliver a superior user experience.
Achieve more with OpenTelemetry
OpenTelemetry will be inextricably tied in with observability in 2024. This open source observability framework is revolutionising how we monitor, trace and optimise APIs by providing an understanding of the full context of data flowing through services and applications.
If you’re behind the curve on OpenTelemetry, it’s time to catch up fast, particularly in terms of understanding the relationship between distributed tracing, OpenTracing and OpenTelemetry. Essentially, OpenTelemetry is a collection of APIs, tools and software development kits (SDKs) that allow you to collect traces, metrics, and logs from your applications and infrastructure. As a result, you gain end-to-end visibility into how different system components interact and perform.
This can be a game-changer for businesses looking to optimise their products and services in the API landscape. They can harness the power of OpenTelemetry to achieve:
- Deep insights: APIs often involve multiple services and microservices. OpenTelemetry enables you to trace requests as they flow through different components, helping identify bottlenecks and performance issues.
- Better troubleshooting: When API issues arise, rapid diagnosis is crucial. OpenTelemetry’s rich data collection helps pinpoint the root cause of problems, reducing downtime and improving the user experience.
- Performance optimisation: By analysing OpenTelemetry data, you can optimise API performance for greater efficiency and responsivity.
- Security enhancement: Detailed observability can detect and respond to security threats and vulnerabilities in real-time, providing a shield for your business while building customer confidence.
- Value measurement: Using OpenTelemetry means you can take a deep dive into API consumption behaviours, understanding who is using them, how often and for which specific purposes.
Whether your goal is to pinpoint the root cause of GraphQL errors, deliver a better user experience or grow your bottom line by ensuring your APIs are functional, highly performant and resilient, OpenTelemetry will help you do so in 2024.
APIs for everyone: here comes mainstream adoption
APIs are no longer just for developers and tech enthusiasts. Increasingly, APIs have become a mainstream tool and topic for businesses across various verticals. In 2024, this democratisation of APIs will not only continue but accelerate.
Several factors are driving the API industry’s move into the mainstream. Low-code and no-code solutions are crucial, as are the advanced automation platforms such as Tyk can deliver. This is opening up API creation, management and consumption to non-technical users. In so doing, they are putting the power of APIs for automation and integration into the hands of the masses.
API marketplaces are underpinning democratisation, too. Just as app stores delivered a step change in how we download and consume software, API marketplaces are on track to become commonplace. These marketplaces will allow businesses to discover, purchase and integrate APIs easily and without diving too deeply into the technology behind them.
Improved API documentation and educational resources will also empower greater mainstream API adoption in 2024. Those creating APIs are increasingly mindful of the power of good documentation when it comes to adoption. This translates into non-technical businesses using that documentation to harness APIs for various purposes, from building custom integrations to automating tasks.
Also relevant is the increasing use of APIs as a standard way for users to interact with smart devices. This will drive mainstream API adoption in the business world and within individual homes, reshaping how we interact with technology daily.
Hello, new API landscape!
As we look ahead to 2024, the world of APIs is poised for significant transformation, with observability, OpenTelemetry and mainstream adoption enabling and pushing API-first businesses to deliver exceptional API experiences. The stage is set for innovation and digital progress. How will you ensure your business thrives in this dynamic digital landscape?
One step you can take is to ensure that your approach to API management – whether technical or not – supports the future-proofing of your business strategy and simplifies observability. Talk to Tyk to learn more about delivering the best API experience for 2024.
