In between the funky festive sounds of Julian Velard and the superb selection of Christmas jumpers, the API community came together to share thoughts on the future during Tyk’s Holiday API Management Extravaganza.
API leaders from around the globe gazed into their crystal balls to share their top tips for API management success in 2023. There’s plenty to think about, from adopting InnerSource concepts to the need to take a holistic approach to API management.
So, without further ado, here are our six tips for API management success in 2023:
1. Take a holistic approach to API management
According to David Biesack, Chief API Officer at Apiture, APIs will continue to be central to enabling new channels and partnerships in 2023. He comments:
“It’s the API way or the highway. Just as APIs contribute to your business success in today’s digital world, good API management is the bedrock of API success. Take a holistic approach. Smartly manage all aspects of your API programme, including requirements, architecture, design, evolution, security, development, testing, deployment, discovery, availability, scalability, monitoring, rate limiting, monetisation and developer experience. All these facets of API management contribute to API success, and failure with any of them puts your business at risk.”
David succinctly puts the importance of APIs into context. So much of a business’s success now rests on the shoulders of its APIs that dropping the ball in even one area of API management can have dramatic consequences.
2. Sharing is caring
For Lorna Mitchell, Head of Developer Relations at Aiven, sharing more with large-scale users is top of the 2023 wish-list. She explains:
“When I look at the amazing features we have in API management today, all of that’s on the publisher side. I want us to build on that developer experience and make some of those features available, particularly to our big-scale users and integrators. Can we give them metrics, diagnostics, and things that will help them make the most out of the API?”
Lorna points out that there are already some great API tools in the stack that could enable this. It’s a question of finding new ways to focus on the user side of the API management experience.
3. Put business objectives at the heart of your API strategy
Axway’s Vice President of Solutions Engineering, Liad Bokovsky, also shared his thoughts on what will lead to API management success during 2023. For Liad, there are two parts to this, with the first being a focus on tying API strategy closely to business objectives:
“Make sure that you tie your API strategy to a business objective. A business objective can be very different for different organisations. It can be about driving adoption, for example, or increasing your existing partners’ retention. It can also be about building a robust internal infrastructure so that you can deliver end products much quicker and more efficiently and go to market much sooner.”
Liad also predicts that businesses will focus intently on marketplaces in 2023 and beyond. He comments:
“We will see companies start looking more into building ecosystems, either building their own marketplaces or being part of other companies’ marketplaces. Organisations will look at how they can reach new markets and introduce themselves to new revenue streams. So, marketplaces will become more common in the next few years.
4. Stay focused
Building on Liad’s point about tying strategy to objectives, Bryan MacLean of RestPoint points out the importance of staying focused on the task at hand in 2023. He comments:
“My number one tip for developers is to stay focused on the real problem you’re trying to solve. It’s tempting to dip into many other areas, but staying focused on the business problem you’re trying to solve is my main tip.”
The API world is developing so fast that it can certainly be easy to get distracted these days!
5. Adopt InnerSource concepts
Travis Gosselin, Principal Software Engineer, Developer Experience at SPS Commerce, also recommends focusing on internal matters during 2023. His tip for API management success? InnerSource. Travis explains:
“My number one tip for API management success is to bring the concepts of InnerSource to your APIs. By this, I mean to pull together open collaborations so that you have a single, centralised API catalogue that your engineers can easily find references to all API endpoints, resources and all the things they need. Also, focusing on open communication provides full transparency between API producers and consumers to ensure you’re building the right thing – which is pretty difficult sometimes!”
6. Use software statements
Our final top tip for API management success in 2023 is from Mike Schwartz, Founder and CEO of Gluu. His tip is to read the OAuth Dynamic Registration RFC and use software statements. He explains:
“If you’re an API developer, you might need to get client credentials like an API key. OAuth and Open ID provide an endpoint called the dynamic client registration endpoint that enables you to do this automatically. But how do we know what permissions or scopes to grant a client registering anonymously from the internet? The trick that we use to do this is called software statements. It’s a JWT that the authorisation server can verify, and then the AS can automatically provision certain scopes or other claims to the client.”
Handy stuff.
Time to think strategically
The tips above are an excellent starting point if you want to make the most out of your APIs and API management in 2023. While you’re feeling inspired, why not download Tyk’s API strategy success pack to really get the best out of the year ahead?
