Why Use REST for Data Access

In this blog, we will discuss the reasons for REST emerging as the default standard for data access.

There are various reasons for adopting REST as the underlying layer for data access including:

• Growth and acceptance of REST as default API for online business
• REST is the lingua franca for mobile
• Real time exchange vs batch oriented

Growth of REST vs SOAP

According to Dyn Research, in the last 20 months, SOAP requests have declined and now comprise 3.3% of the total API requests. REST continues to grow both in number of API requests as well as percentage use compared to SOAP. If you are going to do business over the Internet today, REST is no longer optional. REST is the default way for organizations and consumers to interoperate – both large and small.

Real time Vs Batch ETL

The interaction between businesses means they need to exchange data and transactions. The days of using batch ETL (extract, transform and load) technologies are long past. These interactions need fast web services and the ability to get a quick response acknowledging the transactions. The technology necessarily needs a mapping layer to translate between the sender and receiver and REST technologies make that easy.

REST and Mobile

The use of mobile devices is exploding. Data is at the crux of mobile business – providing the mobile user the data they need to make decisions or submit transactions quickly. These devices need efficient network access, and REST is the answer. JavaScript is particularly mobile friendly – JSON results are JavaScript objects – and so require no translation layer

REST even has a role for web applications. In many cases, ‘fat’ clients access to the database includes logic running on the client – where there may be as many versions of the logic as there are applications. REST provides a mechanism to centralize and share the business logic, enforced by the language-neutral API.