Recently, we hosted a roundtable entitled “Developing an API Strategy: Increasing Efficiency & Engagement.” Patrick Emmons, DragonSpears founder and CEO, co-hosted the event with Scott Wissel, Manager of Emerging Technologies for TTX Company. The key takeaways? Attendees are well along on their API journey, and security is everyone’s biggest concern.
For this discussion, we defined an API, or Application Programming Interface, as a set of routines, protocols and tools that are used for consumable services, treated like a product and usually designed to solve a business problem. Enterprises are using APIs to extend their business capabilities through partner channels and ecosystem engagement initiatives.
Security was on everyone’s mind, and conversation centered on how to ensure security when you’re exposing your business logic to the public. The group discussed several tools and capabilities for addressing this pressing concern, including SSL to enable HTTPS as a secured protocol; token-based authentication; and penetration testing to identify potential security problems.
Several use cases were mentioned, including:
- A service organization that wanted to offer more value to its members
- A technology solutions provider that desired to improve engagement and deliver a seamless experience to business partners
- Publishing companies that aspired to deliver a customized experience to different demographics across the U.S.
Additional topics included how to leverage an API strategy to reduce overall cost (one attendee noted that APIs reduced development cost by almost 25%),
and how APIs work well with a lean, on-demand infrastructure (you can use them on top of monolithic systems to streamline business processes).
To learn more about the DragonSpears Chicago Roundtable group visit our website here.
