INTERFACE, by apidays - APIs: the next 10 years June 8, 9 & 10 2022 Mapping the Multiprotocol Landscape Alianna Inzana, VP of Product at WeTransfer ------------ Check out our conferences at https://www.apidays.global/ Do you want to sponsor or talk at one of our conferences? https://apidays.typeform.com/to/ILJeAaV8 Learn more on APIscene, the global media made by the community for the community: https://www.apiscene.io Explore the API ecosystem with the API Landscape: https://apilandscape.apiscene.io/ Deep dive into the API industry with our reports: https://www.apidays.global/industry-reports/ Subscribe to our global newsletter: https://apidays.typeform.com/to/i1MPEW

1. Mapping the
Multi-Protocol Landscape
A L I A N N A I N Z A N A , V P - P R O D U C T , W E T R A N S F E R
apidays INTERFACE '22

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3. Ali is a thought leader in the API space and a Vice
President of Product at WeTransfer. Her career spans
finance, energy, threat intelligence, and tech - where she
builds tools and platforms focused on APIs & services,
integration, and developer experience. She is a member
of the OpenAPI Initiative, Out in Tech, and participates in
various product- and protocol-related communities. Her
product management SuperPower is asking weird
questions at the right moment.
Alianna Inzana
A P I P R O D U C T L E A D E R & S P E A K E R
linkedin.com/in/aliannainzana/
@AInzana
© 2022 Alianna Inzana
2

4. For many years, the conversation around APIs and
services was split by protocol and specification. If we pull
the camera back over the API and service landscape, this
perspective – API monoculture – is actually less prevalent
than we believe. Today – we will intentionally take a wider
view – and explore how APIs and services have co-
evolved, discovering where we can leverage the lessons
learned from our journey with RESTful services to now
map the multi-protocol landscape. Our objective is to
understand where the multi-protocol perspective can be
leveraged to create value for an organization.
M U L T I - P R O T O C O L > M O N O C U L T U R E
Multi-protocol Landscape
© 2022 Alianna Inzana 3

5. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Anatomy of Change: Multi-protocol Maturity
Moving Beyond Monoculture
Revolutionary vs Evolutionary Change
The Many Faces of Multi-protocol: Tech Debt, Microservices,
Third Party Integrations
We Don't Talk About Workflow: Vocabulary of an Inflection
Point in Multi-protocol Maturity
From Mapping to Mastering: Create Your Own Cartography for
Multi-protocol Exploration
Agenda
M A P P I N G T H E M U L T I - P R O T O C O L L A N D S C A P E
4

6. Towards a Universal Service Maturity Model
Consumption
Collaboration &
Automation
Organizational Scale Developer Experience
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© 2022 Alianna Inzana
API & Service
Programs are an
Organizational Focus
Business recognizes
value & strategic
importance
Design First (at
first) thru True
Design First
Code-first with
annotations to
Document API
Code-first APIs
expose Internal
Database
Code Focus Architecture Focus Value Focus Product Focus
5

7. Maturing as an Industry vs as a Team
Consumption
Collaboration &
Automation
Organizational Scale Developer Experience
Exploration
Manual Checks
Mocking
Performance Tests
Governance
Behavior or Scenario Tests
Security: Client-side
Design Tools
Monitoring
Security: Server-side
DevSecOps
Runtime
Management
Observability
Unsiloed data
Event Portal
Std Broker Tech
Code Focus
E X T R I N S I C F A C T O R S D R I V E I N D U S T R Y M A T U R I T Y
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© 2022 Alianna Inzana
Architecture Focus Value Focus Product Focus
API Developer Portal
Internal & External
Developer Portals
Automation
Gateway
Specifications
Specs
Tools
Practices
6

8. API & Service Maturity
Consumption
Collaboration &
Automation
Organizational Scale Developer Experience
Manual Checks
Mocking
Performance Tests
Governance
Behavior or Scenario Tests
Security: Client-side
Design Tools
Monitoring
Security: Server-side
DevSecOps
Runtime
Management
Observability
Code-first APIs
expose Internal
Database
Design First (at first)
thru True Design First
Unsiloed data
Event Portal
Std Broker Tech
Code Focus
API Programs are an
Organizational Focus
E X T R I N S I C F A C T O R S D R I V E I N D U S T R Y M A T U R I T Y
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© 2022 Alianna Inzana
Architecture Focus
Code-first with
annotations to
Document API
Value Focus Product Focus
API Developer Portal
Business recognizes
value & strategic
importance
Internal & External
Developer Portals
Automation
Gateway
Exploration
Specifications
7

9. So....Why is it NOT Monoculture?
R E S T I S T H E D O M I N A N T A R C H I T E C T U R A L S T Y L E / P R O T O C O L F O R S E R V I C E S T O D A Y
🚀: +93% 🐙: +81% 🐻: +91%
Sources: 🚀Postman State of API Survey 2021 & 🐻SmartBear State of Quality: API 2021 survey & 🐙RapidAPI 2021 Developer Survey Data
1 M O V I N G B E Y O N D M O N O C U L T U R E
8

10. Welcome to
Protocol
Thunderdome
© 2022 Alianna Inzana
9

11. New Protocols, New Specifications
F O U N D A T I O N F O R C O L L A B O R A T I O N = I N T E R F A C E S T A N D A R D S
SWAGGER ('11)
RAML + API BLUEPRINT ('13)
OPENAPI ('15)
⎋
⎋
10

12. New Protocols, New Specifications
I N T E R E S T I N M U L T I P L E P R O T O C O L S R E M A I N S S T R O N G
☑
☑
Each series is shown in relation to itself.
Data only available from 2004
11

13. Majority of organizations
use more than one protocol -
+53% use three or more.
Use 2+ Protocols
+81%
+70% vs +42%
Large organizations
more likely to use SOAP
Sources: Postman State of API Survey 2021 & SmartBear State of Quality: API 2021 survey
Half of all developers
report using SOAP
Apache Kafka Use by
Organizational Maturity
🚀: +48%, 🐻: +56%
+56% of Mature Orgs
Mature Orgs > 10+ years of API
development, vs. 32% of orgs
providing APIs for < 2 years 12

14. Tech Debt and
the 99% Developers
Y O U R T E C H D E B T I S M U L T I - P R O T O C O L
•
•
•
High percentage of large companies are still
running SOAP services, but SOAP is persistent
in smaller and younger companies as well
Migrations - when they happen - can be both
slow and costly for an organization
Support for Legacy Services should be the
expectation - because it is the norm.
© 2022 Alianna Inzana
Suggested Further Reading: Building for the 99% Developers, Jean Yang
13

15. ☑
☑
Microservices are:
🐻: +61% - the largest growth driver for APIs
🚀: +58% - the 'future tech' devs are most excited to
work with
Why are we so excited
about Microservices?
D I G I T A L T R A N S F O R M A T I O N I S H O W T H E B U S I N E S S V I E W S M I C R O S E R V I C E S
14

16. Microservices + Event
Driven Architecture
Source: Designing Event-Driven Systems. Concepts and Patterns for Streaming Services with Apache Kafka
15

17. 3 R D P A R T Y S E R V I C E S = F O U N D A T I O N A L T O T H E E C O S Y S T E M About the data
SmartBear's State of
Software Quality: API
2021 survey indicates
that +70% of developers
both consume and
produce APIs - and that
the concerns around
quality, performance, and
documentation are highly
aligned between
producers and
consumers.
Source: SmartBear State of Quality: API 2021 survey
API Usage: ~80% Consume APIs
© 2022 Alianna Inzana
16

18. 0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
REST Webhooks GraphQL gRPC
Unfamiliar Aware, Not Using Investigating Current POC In Production
3rd Party Service Integrations
Sources: Predicts 2022: APIs Demand Improved Security and Management - Gartner Reprint and RapidAPI 2021 API Survey
B U I L D I N G F R O M P O L Y G L O T S E R V I C E S
62.5% 81%
26%
13.7%
* Chart Data from RapidAPI 2021 Developer Survey
17

19. API tools designed to work with a specification can be
difficult to generalize to work across multiple types of
services...which leads to constant context switching as
developers navigate between tools...which undermines
efficiency in significant and costly ways.
Most Tools Align to a
Single Specification
S P E C I F I C A T I O N M Y O P I A I N T H E T O O L C H A I N
© 2022 Alianna Inzana
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20. Multi-protocol Tooling....?
Consumption
Collaboration &
Automation
Organizational Scale Developer Experience
Manual Checks
Mocking
Performance Tests
Governance
Behavior or Scenario Tests
Security: Client-side
Design Tools
Monitoring
Security: Server-side
DevSecOps
Runtime
Management
Observability
Code-first APIs
expose Internal
Database
Design First (at first)
thru True Design First
Unsiloed data
Event Portal
Std Broker Tech
Code Focus
API Programs are an
Organizational Focus
E X T R I N S I C F A C T O R S D R I V E I N D U S T R Y M A T U R I T Y
<
<
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G
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N
A
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V
A
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U
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© 2022 Alianna Inzana
Architecture Focus
Code-first with
annotations to
Document API
Value Focus Product Focus
API Developer Portal
Business recognizes
value & strategic
importance
Internal & External
Developer Portals
Automation
Gateway
☑
☐
Exploration
Doc Gen
☐
☐
☑
☐
Design
Mock
Test
Secure
☐
☐
☑
Governance Tools
Monitoring
Dev Portals?
MULTI-PROTOCOL
TOOL
CHAIN
Exploration
Specifications
Specs
Tools
Practices
19

21. Specifications contain the
'Lego Bricks' of a Service
•
•
•
API Description Formats describe and/or aggregate a
service's resources - endpoints, channels, queries,
mutations, protobufs, etc.
Each spec format contains different blocks that
provide metadata on environments, security,
versioning for the service itself
The 'bricks' provide a standardize interface - as a
function of conformance to the specification type
© 2022 Alianna Inzana
20

22. API Development Lifecycle
21

23. ALPS: Application-level
Profile Semantics
•
•
•
•
•
ALPS profile is intended to explain "the vital domain-
specific semantic descriptors and state transitions...on
defining application-level semantics, independent of
transfer protocol or media type..."
Focus is on:
Properties, not objects and
Actions, not implementation details.
From an agnostic design, ALPS utilities can generate
various standard description formats for a service
(OAS, AsyncAPI, GraphQL, etc.)
A L P S D O C U M E N T S P R O F I L E T H E T A R G E T D O M A I N
22

24. Behavior Driven Development - when used correctly -
describes the behavior of a system - what it does, not
how it is done (aka implementation details). It is not API-
specific, though there are some API tools that use the
framework. BDD activity centers on three core practices:
Discovery, Formulation, and Automation
BDD: Behavior Driven
Development
B D D P R O V I D E S F R A M E W O R K : G I V E N / T H E N / W H E N
23

25. Specifications Inventory a
System; Behavior Captures
how to Create Business Value
24

26. Organizations Mature on their Own Timescale
Consumption
Collaboration &
Automation
Organizational Scale Developer Experience
Code Focus
I N T R I N S I C N E E D S D R I V E O R G A N I Z A T I O N A L M A T U R I T Y
<
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© 2022 Alianna Inzana
Architecture Focus Value Focus Product Focus
API & Service
Programs are an
Organizational Focus
Business recognizes
value & strategic
importance
Design First (at
first) thru True
Design First
Code-first with
annotations to
Document API
Code-first APIs
expose Internal
Database
Source: Apigee 2021 State Of The API Economy report
25

27. API & Service Maturity
Consumption
Collaboration &
Automation
Organizational Scale Developer Experience
Manual Checks
Mocking
Performance Tests
Governance
Behavior or Scenario Tests
Security: Client-side
Design Tools
Monitoring
Security: Server-side
DevSecOps
Runtime
Management
Observability
Code-first APIs
expose Internal
Database
Design First (at first)
thru True Design First
Unsiloed data
Event Portal
Std Broker Tech
Code Focus
API Programs are an
Organizational Focus
E X T R I N S I C F A C T O R S D R I V E I N D U S T R Y M A T U R I T Y
<
<
<
O
R
G
A
N
I
Z
A
T
I
O
N
A
L
V
A
L
U
E
© 2022 Alianna Inzana
Architecture Focus
Code-first with
annotations to
Document API
Value Focus Product Focus
API Developer Portal
Business recognizes
value & strategic
importance
Internal & External
Developer Portals
Automation
Gateway
Exploration
Specifications
26

28. H I G H M A T U R I T Y O R G A N I Z A T I O N S P R I O R I T I Z E C R E A T I N G V I A B L E E C O S Y S T E M S
Low/Med Maturity Organizations are Tactically Focused
Emphasize APIs and services as
a means to an end, not as the end itself
Mature Organizations Take a Strategic Focus
APIs and services as a product - value is created and shared.
15%
47%
Source: Apigee 2021 State Of The API Economy report 27

29. 28

30. "Maturity is the Capacity to
Endure Uncertainty."
•
•
•
Mature organizations do not only create value and
acknowledge the strategic importance of APIs and
services - but they also use them to build a resilient
enterprise.
Mature organizations will not exist in monoculture, but
will require solutions that help developers work across
protocols
Build what we need, not what we know.
© 2021 Alianna Inzana
J O H N H U S T O N F I N L E Y

31. Suggestions for Further Reading
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Managing Complexity - Developer Tools
API by Design | Stephen Mizell
The Case for Developer Experience | Jean Yang
I Test in Prod | Charity Majors
Building for the 99% Developers | Future | Jean Yang
How Netflix Scales its API with GraphQL Federation (Part 2) | Netflix Tech Blog
Apigee 2021 State Of The API Economy report
Protocols: Stats and Info
Predicts 2022: APIs Demand Improved Security and Management | Gartner
🚀Postman State of API Survey 2021
🐻SmartBear State of Quality: API 2021 survey
🐙RapidAPI 2021 Developer Survey Data
ALPS: Application-level Profile Semantics
Cucumber: Behavior Driven Development
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation Changes How Companies Create Value | HBR Dec 2021 | Van Alstyne & Parker
Legacy Modernization or Chasing Rainbows | Nordic APIs |
30

32. Alianna Inzana
Email
alianna@aliannainzana.com
C O N T A C T
linkedin.com/in/aliannainzana/
@AInzana
Thank You