The document outlines a framework for evaluating API management platforms, highlighting the importance of APIs as business capabilities. It discusses strategies for API adoption, challenges to overcome, and the features that a robust API management platform should offer, including monitoring, governance, and analytics. Emphasis is placed on creating high-quality, secure APIs that enhance developer engagement and drive ecosystem adoption.

1. Last Updated: June. 2015
API Management
Technical Evaluation Framework
Vice President, Platform Evangelism, WSO2
Chris Haddad

2. REST Easy with API 101
An API is a business capability delivered over the Internet
to internal or external consumers
• Network accessible function
• Available using standard web protocols
• With well-defined interfaces
• Designed for access by third-parties

3. Beyond the Technology- API Strategy Steps
• Understand your business model and IT-business
goals
• Expose a business capability as an API product
• Socialize availability
• Encourage ecosystem adoption and API
composition

4. API Adoption Barriers
Inability to configure
service per consumer
Limited Scale
Difficult to manage
requirements and
coordinate schedules
Difficult On-Ramp
nvisible business capabilities
Poor documentation
Lengthy access process
Delivery concerns
trust in stability, reliability,
availability, performance
Security Risks

5. Why use an API Management Platform
o Easily build and deploy a managed API
o Rapidly re-factor legacy services as consumable
RESTful APIs
o Increase API adoption
o Solve difficult Quality of Service, lifecycle, and
governance challenges
o Demonstrate API business value

6. Evolve beyond Naked APIs
A Managed API is:
Actively advertised and subscribe-able
Exhibits high Quality of Service (QoS)
Available with Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Secured, authenticated, authorized and protected
Monitored and monetized with analytics

7. What API Management Platform Offers
o Increase API adoption
o Enhance API visibility by offering developer portal
o Offer self-service access
o Engage the community
o Easily build and deploy a managed API
o Apply RESTful API design notations
o Assign service level tiers and access controls
o One button publication into production

8. What API Management Platform Offers
o Rapidly re-factor legacy services as consumable
RESTful APIs
o Mediation primitives
o Align developer experience with RESTful design
o Solve difficult Quality of Service, lifecycle, and
governance challenges
o Service level tiers, monitoring
o Approval workflow
o API versioning and lifecycle states
o Demonstrate API business value
o Subscription, usage, performance, monetization

9. API Platform
Evaluation Vectors
oSolutions Architecture
oDesign and Implement
oSecure
oPublish and Engage
oMonitor and Manage
oAnalyze API Interactions

10. Solutions Architecture
Category Score
Intuitive Development Experience
DevOps Friendly
Delivers High Quality of Service and Performance
Easily Deployed in Your Run-time Environment
Pluggable, Extensible, and Themable
Platform APIs
Platform multi-tenancy support
Efficient Pricing and Excellent Support

11. Solution Topology

12. Enterprise SOA and API Integration
Platform: API-centric View

13. Design and Implement

14. API Design and Implementation
Category Adoption Score
API Design Foundation
API Documentation Foundation
API Façade Development Foundation
API Mediation and Orchestration Optimizing
Service Level Definition Optimizing
API Test Optimizing

15. o ???
Safely and securely deliver mission critical APIs

16. Secure
Category Score
Access Control, Authentication, and Key
Management
Governance and Compliance
Attack Prevention
Confidentiality, integrity, and privacy
Identity and Credential Management
Infrastructure Integration and Deployment
Topology
Trust and Policy
User Management

17. 1
7
Passing Auth Information to back-end services
o Using JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
o Lightweight
o Can be signed
o Easy to parse and consume
o Standard

18. Foster API Team Collaboration
Image: © Rawpixel - Fotolia.com

19. Publish and Engage
Category Score
API Consumption
API Economy
API Publication
Community Management

20. Boost the API Economy
o Fully customizable look and feel
o Multiple Storefronts for diverse communities
o Multiple publisher groups
o Flexible Service Level Tiers
o Flexible monetization engine

21. Monitor and Manage
Category Score
Configuration Management
Release Management
Patch Management
Policy Management
Service Level Management
High Availability and Reliability
Performance
Disaster Recovery
Monitoring and Alerts
Compliance Reporting and Governance

22. Operate at the Speed of Business
Govern the API

23. Govern the API
Category Score
Dashboard
Lifecycle Management
Meta-data Management
Portfolio Management
Service Level Management
Usage Management
Version Management

24. API Product Governance
o Manage Dependencies
o Track adoption
o Usage and Subscription Tracking
o Manage Compatibility
o Backwards or Forwards
o Versioning
o Communicate Migration Strategies
o Deprecation, Retirement

25. End to End Governance
o An API can pass through multiple states
o CREATED
o PUBLISHED
o DEPRECATED
o RETIRED
o BLOCKED
o Service Alignment

26. Compass and Gearing
You can’t manage
what you can’t measure.

27. Analyze API Interactions
Category Score
API Economy
Architecture
Compliance
Developer Experience
Monitoring and Management
Portfolio Management
Security
Usage

28. 2
8
Why Analytics and API Management are important together?
o Build confidence in the API model
o Understand your customer
o Not just the developer but also the end-user
o Help manage services and versions
o Understand when deprecated services can be retired
o Plan better
o Monitor the growth of aggregated API traffic
o Monitor the growth of specific apps
o Even if you’re not going to put analytics in place, make sure
you capture all events right from beginning of project.

29. Service Re-use Dashboard

30. API Landscape

31. Future Gate
http://wso2.com/api-management/try-it/
http://wso2.com/cloud/api-cloud/
Access the WSO2 API Platform

32. Contact us !