A State of API Integration Update: Insight From the API Evangelist

Each year we release a report on the State of API Integration, including the latest API trends, insights on the ease of integration, data on where the industry is strongest, and where we think it is going next. While our latest release was only a few months ago in March, API Evangelist and SoAI contributor, Kin Lane, revealed additional insights we couldn't help but add to our report. Read on to discover what has been driving API growth and what might be holding things back.

If you don’t already know Kin Lane, it’s about time to get out from under that rock where you’ve been living. He boasts over 25 years of experience in the technology space, across a myriad of roles, from programmer to database administrator, architect, product developer, manager, and executive. Today, he spends his time researching the API industry and spreading the word about what APIs are and why they are important to everyone, regardless of role or position.

In his latest addition to the report, Lane reminds us that while it is easy to get carried away with the excitement of rapid API growth, it is important to keep in mind that there are still many limitations in the API lifecycle, and a long—and likely bumpy—road of continued growth in the API space. He identifies the following two issues as his “hot button” roadblocks that will likely plague API providers for the year to come:

• Standardization: “Identity, authentication and access management will continue to be the biggest challenge we all face, and be the number one area that companies will need to be investing in if they expect to achieve success in their API journey.”
• Discovery: “With the growing number of both public and private APIs, we need to be investing in crafting, storing, and sharing of metadata describing our APIs, as well as the operations surrounding them.”

If you haven’t already downloaded the report, there is no better time like the present. If you have, we encourage you to re-download to read Kin Lane’s additional expert insights.