DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
  1. DZone
  2. Data Engineering
  3. Databases
  4. The Heart Of APIs

The Heart Of APIs

What is the heart of APIs?

Kin Lane user avatar by
Kin Lane
·
Dec. 05, 18 · Opinion
Like (4)
Save
Tweet
Share
9.17K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

One thing you hear in mainstream technology circles frequently is that at some point, REST, RESTful, web, and HTTP APIs will eventually have to go away. At Streamdata.io, we are pretty confident that we will be using web technology to provide simple, precise, useful access to data, content, and algorithms for some time to come, despite the API sectors continued evolution, and investment trends coming and going. Sorry, it is simple, low-cost, and something a wide audience gets from both a provider and consumer perspective. It gets the job done. Sure, there are many, many areas where web APIs fall short, but that won't stop success continuing to be defined by enterprise organizations who can do microservices well at scale. Despite relentless assaults by each wave of entrepreneurs, simple HTTP APIs driving microservices will stick around for some time to come.

It is easy to get caught up in the latest trend coming out of Silicon Valley and see APIs as just one of the latest phases, which will ultimately come to a close.

APIs

Sure, there will be changes and evolutionary aspects of delivering APIs to consider, but providing machine-readable access to data, content, and algorithmic resources using simple, low-cost web infrastructure will continue to make sense. There are definitely other evolutionary trends like GraphQL, event-driven infrastructure, and service mesh that API providers should be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy, but if you aren't doing basic web APIs well at scale, you just aren't going to be equipped to deliver appropriately in some of these areas.

It makes sense to stay in tune with each trend to come along, but not at the cost of what your core competency should be--delivering consistent, reliable, scalable API resources across the enterprise. From there you can start specializing in GraphQL endpoints, webhooks, streaming, and other event-driven approaches to delivering resources. From there you can start pushing you to ensure everything is automatically discoverable, fault-tolerant, performant, and reliable. One of the most important things you can do is focus heavily on ALL of our enterprise teams possessing mastery when it comes to the fundamentals of APIs before expecting your enterprise organization to begin embracing other more advanced approaches to delivering API resources across teams — ensuring everyone has the fundamentals they need to be successful.

Web Service API trends microservice Data (computing) teams GraphQL REST Infrastructure Web Protocols

Published at DZone with permission of Kin Lane, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • The Key Assumption of Modern Work Culture
  • The Changing Face of ETL
  • Learning by Doing: An HTTP API With Rust
  • Silver Bullet or False Panacea? 3 Questions for Data Contracts

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: