Microservices meetupnz dec16

Digital Economy and APIs
API Strategy Best Practice
Alex Wilson. CISSP
API Evangelist and Educator
New Zealand – December 2016
Alexb.Wilson@ca.com

2 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Reference Material for further reading
 Cattle v Pets
 https://www.infoq.com/articles/microservices-revolution
 Conway
 https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-sailors-microservices
 Apple – dog food lesson
 http://nordicapis.com/lessons-learned-apples-api-strategy/
 API Academy
 http://www.apiacademy.co/

What is a “Web API”?
Technical Definition
• A network-addressable (usually by HTTP) interface that
enables state transfer of data representations
Fielding, R. T. (2000). Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software
Architectures. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm
Cox, J.(2001). Network World. Jan. 29, 2001. Volume 18, No.
5. https://books.google.ca/books?id=dBsEAAAAMBAJ

So what’s the big deal?
http://history.apievangelist.com/

The Business Value of APIs
It’s not what they are,
it’s what they enable

Common Questions
Is this Digital Transformation in
action?
How can I leverage this?
How much can I do?

Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
API360: An Enterprise Model for API Success

Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security

Alignment & Usefulness
A company’s APIs should align
with its business goals
A company’s APIs should be
useful to a target audience

API Strategy Anti-Patterns
• For Open APIs, don’t assume that “if you build it they
will come”Faith in the Long Tail
• Don’t start by trying to build the complete set of
perfect APIs that will serve every possible consumerService Perfectionism
• Don’t start by picking languages, frameworks and
software components
Technological
Obsession
• Don’t let single API consumer projects (e.g. mobile)
put in long term barriersTunnel Vision

Successful Strategy
Strategy = Goals +
Plan + Execution

http://www.amazon.com/The-Everything-Store-
Bezos-Amazon-ebook/dp/B00BWQW73E
Alignment & Usefulness Case Study: Amazon

“We don’t make money when we sell things.
We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions.”
Idealism Pragmatism
Alignment & Usefulness Case Study: Amazon

Alignment & Usefulness – Key Questions
What are my
business goals, and
how can APIs help
me achieve them?
Do I have funded
projects that could
benefit from APIs?
What are the gaps
in my industry that
can be exploited
through APIs?
What business
model does my API
enable or extend?

Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security

Engagement & Usability
A company should focus on
engaging its target developers
APIs should be easy for these
developers to use

Engagement & Usability Case Study: Twilio

Engagement & Usability
Case Study: Twilio
Competition in the
communication API
marketplace

Keys to Success
•Aggressive Marketing
•First Mover Advantage
•Focus on usability

•Developer registrations
•TTHW (Time to “Hello World”)
•Developer community activity
API Usability Metrics:

Engagement & Usability – Key Questions
Who are the intended
and expected
consumers of my
APIs?
How do I attract and
retain the right
consumers and
developers?
How do I factor my
API consumer needs
into my API design?
How do I continually
enhance the
developer experience
(DX) for my API?

Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security

Scalability & Evolvability
APIs should be able to shrink
and grow with the business
APIs should be able to change
and adapt over time

Good Enterprise Architecture
DO
• Focus on the horizon
• Synthesize multiple
perspectives
• Impose appropriate
constraints
DO NOT
• Obsess about
standardization
• Only care about
technology
• Favour model over
reality

SOA, APIs & Microservice Architecture (μSA)
Decompose
systems into
reusable services.
That’s good!
Respect the
human element.
That’s new!
Be good at change, be
prepared for failure.
That’s novel!

Scalability & Evolvability – Key Questions
What factors will
affect the design
time scalability of
my APIs?
How should I
version my APIs?
What are the
technology trends I
need to consider for
my APIs?
What are the
organizational
constraints that will
affect my success?

Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security

Manageability & Security
It should be easy to see and
control an API’s activity
An API should only give the right
data to the right consumers

Manageability & Security – Key Questions
What metrics do I
need for my APIs?
How can I control
access to my APIs
without putting up
new barriers?
Who are the
principals involved in
my APIs and how can
I protect privacy?
What new threats do
I need to protect
against for APIs?

The Five Pillars of API Management
From https://www.ca.com/us/collateral/ebooks/na/5-pillars-of-api-management.aspx

Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
Summary

Microservices – What use are they?
Alex Wilson. CISSP
API Evangelist and Educator

Marc Andreessen
“This is a pattern that we love
to fund:
unbundle X from Y, but then
use the liberation of X as
leverage to do amazing new
things with X.”

«unbundled by»
Remember AOL?

«unbundled by»

Unbundling
(the) greatest disruptor of tech industry
“The most unbundled form
of your product portfolio
are your APIs”
– Irakli Nadareishvili. API Academy

“Microservices unbundle
your business for internal and
[controlled] external
disruption”
Lesson

Once upon a time…

Software engineering today…

μ

A microservice is an
independently deployable
component of bounded scope
that supports interoperability
through message based
communications.

Microservice Architecture is
a style of engineering highly-
automated, evolvable software
systems made up of
capability-aligned
microservices.

Small
Continuous
improvement
Evolutionary Automated
Loosely
Coupled
Container-
based
Conway’s law
Independent
Deployability
Decentralized
Governance
Decentralized
Data
Immutable Message Based
Service-
oriented
Products not
Projects
Smart
Endpoints
Dumb Pipes
Bounded in
Scope
Modular
Smart
Endpoints
Continuous
Deployment
Asynchronous
Messaging
Interoperable
Capability
Aligned
Design for
Failure
Event Based Autonomous

Microservice Complexity
• Microservices are simple
• Microservice systems are complex

A microservice is an independently
deployable component of bounded
scope that supports interoperability
through message based communications.

Microservice Architecture is a style
of engineering highly-automated,
evolvable software systems made up
of capability-aligned microservices.

Service
(micro)
Solution
(macro)
Organization Culture
Process
and
Tools

The Microservices Way
Speed and Safety at Scale
and in Harmony

Examples of Increasing Speed
• Zero bureaucracy, don’t ask for permission
• Zero validation, don’t test anything
• Increase change frequency
• Higher faster programmers
• Use un-constrained languages and tools
• Change production directly

Facebook’s Motto
Move Fast and Break
Things
“
”
Mark Zuckerberg

We want to combine the extraordinary
customer-serving capabilities that are enabled
by size with the speed of movement,
nimbleness, and risk-acceptance mentality
normally associated with entrepreneurial start-
ups.
Jeff Bezos Wants Amazon to be Fast
“
”
Jeff Bezos
Amazon 2015 Letter to Shareholders

Examples of Increasing Safety
• Strong governance, control everything
• Always validate, test everything
• Reduce change frequency
• Higher safer programmers
• Use constrained languages and tools
• No access to production environments

Facebook’s Motto (reprised)
Move Fast and Break
Things
“
”

Facebook’s Motto (reprised)
Move Fast and Break
Things
“
”
Move Fast with
Stable Infra
“
”
Facebook’s motto in 2014

Applying the Microservices Way
1. Establish the right boundaries everywhere
2. Build a system that makes change feel easy and safe
3. Implement the right processes and standards
4. Steer the system and measure it
5. Accept that right, easy and safe are a product of time
and context

Microservices meetupnz dec16

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