Autonomous APIs Zdenek Nemec, Founder, Good API Apply to be a speaker here - https://apidays.typeform.com/to/J1snsg

1. goodapi.co
AUTONOMOUS
APIS
Zdenek “Z” Nemec
goodapi.co
Next chapter in APIs

2. goodapi.co
I help businesses build APIs
Zdenek “Z” Nemec
@zdnezdne1

3. goodapi.co
AUTONOMOUS APIS
Next chapter in APIs

4. goodapi.co
API CHAPTERS
NumberofAPIs
Year
1990 2000 2010 2020
1. CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC APIS 2. GENERIC APIS 3. HARMONIZED APIS
4. AUTONOMOUS APIS

5. goodapi.cogoodapi.co
EVERY CHAPTER
HAS ITS API
ARCHITECTURAL
STYLE–API
PARADIGM REST vs. GraphQL
@zdne

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CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC APIS1
LARGE ORGANIZATIONS EMBRACING IT
(YEARS 1990-2000S)

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CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC APIS1
SOAP, EDI, FTP & ESB
one-to-one, point-to-point

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CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC APIS1
API PROVIDERS FACE ISSUES WITH SIZE
COMPLEXITY OF POINT TO POINT INTEGRATIONS
AND THE ESB “FAILURE”

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CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC APIS1
NEW API CONSUMERS FIND THE APIS TOO
COMPLEX AND CUMBERSOME TO USE

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GENERIC APIS2
UBIQUITOUS INTERNET & SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
(YEARS 2005-2018+)

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GENERIC APIS2
one-to-many: many mid- or
small- size customers
one-to-one: few large
established customers

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GENERIC APIS2
one-to-many
SO-CALLED-REST, LATER ALSO GRAPHQL

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GENERIC APIS2
API PROVIDERS ARE FACING COMPLEXITY
ISSUES FROM INCREASING NUMBER OF OWN
APIS, CLIENT INTEGRATIONS, SERVER & CLIENT
DEPLOYMENTS AND API VERSIONS

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GENERIC APIS2
NEW CONSUMERS FIND COMPLEX AND COSTLY
TO INTEGRATE AND MAINTAIN THE
INTEGRATIONS WITH MULTIPLE DIFFERENT APIS

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HARMONIZED APIS3
CLIENTS CONSUMING MULTIPLE APIS
MICROSERVICES, FORMING API LANDSCAPES
(YEAR 2017+)

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API
LANDSCAPES
APIs are no longer in silos
goodapi.co

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HARMONIZED APIS3
ORGANIZATIONS LANDSCAPES

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HARMONIZED APIS3
B C D . . .
IF I AM BUILDING AN E-SHOP DO I WANT TO INTEGRATE WITH 400
LOGISTICS PROVIDERS?
APIs
e-shop
DOMAIN LANDSCAPES

19. goodapi.co
Accommoda
tion B
Accommoda
tion C
Accommoda
tion D
Accommoda
tion E
API
Consumer
APIs
Accommoda
tion E
3
HARMONIZED APIS
CROSS-DOMAIN LANDSCAPES

20. goodapi.co
3 HARMONIZED APIS EXAMPLES

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–Radek Novotny; CEO & founder MyStay
“There are few integrators for
hospitality APIs consolidating as
many as 40 PMS but they are
either not-duplex or slow in
reactions”
CHALLENGE: INTEGRATION
WITH MANY PROPERTY
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (PMS)
3

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HOW TO INTEGRATE WITH THOUSANDS OF
IOT DEVICES FROM DIFFERENT VENDORS
DEPLOYED IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS?
3

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Client Client Client Client Client Client
HOSPITALITY & TRAVEL
Accommoda
tion B
Accommoda
tion C
Accommoda
tion D
Accommoda
tion E
3

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Accommoda
tion B
Accommoda
tion C
Accommoda
tion D
Accommoda
tion E
Existing
Customer
Existing
Customer
Existing
Customer
3rd party
New Type of
Customer
New Type of
Customer
New Type of
Customer
BANKING APIS
Accelerated by PSD2
3

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Accommoda
tion B
Accommoda
tion C
Accommoda
tion D
Accommoda
tion E
Existing
Customer
Existing
Customer
Existing
Customer
3rd party
New Type of
Customer
New Type of
Customer
New Type of
Customer
LOGISTICS
Metapack integrates
over 400 carriers
Over 100 (!!!) 3rd Party vendors
3

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Website A
Client Client Client Client Client Client
ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS
REALLY YOURS?
Website B Website C Website D Website E
3

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HARMONIZED APIS3
many-to-many: clients
consuming multiple APIs
one-to-many: many mid- or
small- size customers

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HARMONIZED APIS3
COMPLEXITY OF CONSUMING MULTIPLE
DIFFERENT APIS IS TACKLED BY
STANDARDIZATION, GOVERNANCE TO ACHIEVE
CONSISTENCY
HARMONIZATION IS ALSO OFTEN DONE WITH
WRAPPER APIS

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HARMONIZED APIS3
HARMONIZED APIS PROVIDERS ARE FACING
COMPLEXITY ISSUES TRYING TO NORMALIZE,
GOVERN OR MAINTAINING MANY INTEGRATIONS
APIS MANUALLY

30. goodapi.co
HARMONIZED APIS3
COMPLEXITY EXTERNAL API CONSUMERS ARE
FACING WHEN CONSUMING MULTIPLE DOMAIN
OR CROSS-DOMAIN APIS IS STILL LEFT
UNCHECKED

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COMPLEXITY

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COMPLEXITYComplexity
Task-structure
Complexity
How difficult it is
understand how to
perform a task in a
distributed system
Unpredictability
How difficult is to predict
effect of an action in
distributed system, amount
of entropy
Size Complexity
Size of the system implies
cognitive complexity, large
number of concepts and
the knowledge required
Chaotic Complexity
Small variations in a certain
part of the system can have
large effects on overall
system behavior
Algorithmic Complexity
Both traditional algorithm
complexity in the term of
time and space and
cognitive complexity of
understanding algorithm

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COMPLEXITYComplexity
API Designs x Versions x Deployment Hosts x Clients x Client Deployments
IS HIGHER THAN TWO
You are likely to face complexity using, maintaining and evolving your API
130 APIs
3 x 6 (environments x
availability zones)
70 versions 1500 integrations
own deployments: 3 x 6
on-premise deployments: 1000
apps: 3 000 000
IoT: ?????
= 1,10565×10^9
IF THE NUMBER OF

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SOLUTIONS

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SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEXITYComplexity
1. Hire more people
2. Standardization
3. Apply massive automation
4. Autonomy of the components in API landscape

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SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEXITYComplexity
1. Hire More People
Mechanical turks, eyeballing documentation for changes in
design, fixing clients and implementations accordingly.
CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC & GENERIC APIS
ROLE OF HUMANS IN APIS

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HIRE MORE PEOPLEComplexity
REALITY
💻
📱
💻
📱
🙎
$
HUMANS INSIDE
VS.
• time and money spent
• not scaling
• chance of
misinterpretation
• error-prone

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SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEXITYComplexity
2. Standardization
HARMONIZED APIS
API DESIGN, LIFECYCLE &
DEVELOPMENT STANDARDIZATION

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STANDARDIZATIONComplexity
API GUIDELINES & DESIGN CHECKS

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3. Massive Automation
AUTOMATED HARMONIZED APIS, AUTONOMOUS APIS
Complexity
SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEXITY
AUTOMATED CONTRACT-DRIVEN API
LIFECYCLE

41. goodapi.co
💻
📱
📄
INTERFACE
ACTUALLY
EXPOSED
INTERFACE
DOCUMENTED
INTERFACED
USED
are they the same?
are they the same?
are they the same?
Complexity
AUTOMATION
KEEPING THINGS IN CHECK IS HARD

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Complexity
AUTOMATION
CONTRACT-DRIVEN

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https://goodapi.co/api-lifecycle
Complexity
AUTOMATION
ENTIRE LIFECYCLE

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4. Autonomy
AUTONOMOUS APIS
SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEXITY
AUTONOMY IS THE SOLUTION TO THE DIFFICULTY
OF MANAGING MANY COMPONENTS CENTRALLY
Components autonomy in an API Landscape reduces the
complexity, enables scaling, and promotes the service
commoditization.
Complexity

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AUTONOMY
“Autonomy: freedom from external control or influence;
independence; sovereignty in making decisions and
changes.”
–New Oxford American Dictionary
Complexity

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AUTONOMOUS APIS4
MACHINE-TO-MACHINE APIS, SELF-DRIVING, NO
HUMAN INTERVENTION, CROSS-DOMAIN
LANDSCAPES
RISE OF IOT & AI
(YEAR 2020+)

47. goodapi.co
Navigation through autonomic units
Countries, Regions, Cities, City
Quarters are autonomous regions
but when you are driving from A to B
you need to navigate through their
roads
A
B
Design-time & Runtime Navigation
You need both to follow a map and
traffic signs to navigate effectively
4 AUTONOMOUS APIS
NAVIGATE SAFELY IN API LANDSCAPE

48. goodapi.co
–Autonomous Client
“The level of autonomy is the ability to safely
navigate in the API landscape (where the constraints
are time and price)”
4 LEVELS OF AUTONOMY

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Brittle System
Documented Brittle System
Automated System
Decoupled Automated System
Autonomous System
Autonomy
Autonomous APIs
0
1
2
3
4
AUTONOMOUS APIS4

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• Tightly coupled components
• No semantics, interface or
lifecycle data
• Pros
• Time to delivery for point to
point integrations when
complexity is low
• Cons
• Everything breaks when
something changes
• Not scaling with growing
complexity
Level 0 BRITTLE SYSTEM
LEVELS OF AUTONOMY

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• Tightly coupled components
• Interface metadata available
• Human only-semantics
metadata available
• No lifecycle metadata (is the
documentation documenting
the interface implementation?)
• Pros
• Possible API productization
• Reusability
• Cons
• Lock on changes, unable to evolve
DOCUMENTED BRITTLE SYSTEM
LEVELS OF AUTONOMY
Level 1

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• Mostly tightly coupled
components
• Metadata are verified, valid and
reliable
• Metadata are human or machine
readable
• Advertisement of the interface,
semantics and lifecycle metadata
• Client subscription to future
changes
• Pros
• Explicit understanding of price and
risk of making changes in the API
landscape
• Quality Control
• Cons
• Advanced mindset change
involving many people
• Cultural denial, hard to get buy-in
AUTOMATED SYSTEM
LEVELS OF AUTONOMY
Level 2

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• Uniform Interface
• Decoupled components
• Evolvability of the components
in their respective environments
• Share understanding-metadata
at RUNTIME
• Pros
• Harmonized within the system
• Reducing price and risk of making
changes (by design)
• Cons
• Difficult taking everything into
account, prone to chaotic & size
complexity
DECOUPLED AUTOMATED SYSTEM
LEVELS OF AUTONOMY
Level 3

54. goodapi.co
• Self driving clients
• Landscape discovery
• Machine understanding
• Vocabulary not data structure
• Declarative programming
• Autonomy of the components
• Leveraging learned data from
simulation for infrastructure
• Pros
• Higher level of abstraction
• Implicit harmonization
• Full autonomy of components
• Independent evolution
• Cons
• Cognitive (Algorithmic) Complexity
• Demanding on computational power
• Higher level of abstraction
AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM
LEVELS OF AUTONOMY
Level 4

55. goodapi.cogoodapi.co
Early four-engine jets required flight engineers.
Later four-engine jets were designed with
sufficient automation to eliminate the position.
747 FLIGHT ENGINEERS
...this will also happen in the world of APIs.

56. goodapi.co
API CHAPTERS
one-to-many
one-to-one
many-to-many
machine-to-machine
Drivers behind the changes
API CONSUMERS EXPECTATIONS COMPLEXITY
task-structure
unpredictability
chaotic
size
algorithmic
+
GROWING # OF API
CONSUMERS +
INCREASING DEMAND
EVOLVING DEMAND INCREASING PROBLEMS

57. goodapi.co
1. CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC APIS 2. GENERIC APIS 3. HARMONIZED APIS 4. AUTONOMOUS APIS
one-to-manyone-to-one many-to-many machine-to-machine
API CHAPTERS

58. goodapi.co
SERVICE COMMODITIZATION
CUSTOMER SPECIFIC APIS (SOAP)
GENERIC APIS (SO-CALLED-REST)
HARMONIZED APIS
AUTONOMOUS APIS
Graph by Simon Wardley, “How commodity is something?”
HARMONIZED APIS (AUTOMATED)

59. goodapi.co
DIGITAL WHOLESALE PRESENCE
&
SERVICE COMMODITIZATION
“Look for a service that can fulfill the shipment of 6
pallets from Prague to Paris under 100 EUR.”
“Look for a service that provides information about
adidas stan smith”
“Is there an air condition service in my landscape?”
“Look for a service that has gs1:Offer where
gs1:itemOffered gs1:gpcCategoryCode is MILK.”
“The level of autonomy is the
ability to safely navigate in the API
landscape (where the constraints
are time and price)”
REVOLUTION IN
(API)
ECONOMY

60. goodapi.co
GOOD
API
INDEPENDENT API CONSULTING
WE ARE HIRING

61. IMAGES BY UNSPLASH.COM
ICONS BY MARTINFOWLER.COM