Growth Of The API Economy Requires IT Operational Flexibility

Today, the prevalence of API communications in companies and organizations has caused some experts to define these times as the new “API economy.” The growth of application programming interface (API) use has been on a strong trajectory, and it shows no signs of slowing.

Automation of systems, machine-to-machine communications, software-driven or defined paradigms and horizontal movement toward cloud apps and cloud architectures from edge to users and endpoints all contribute toward increasing amounts of API traffic on company networks. Even the use and integration of new security and networking solutions increase the use of APIs. This growth presents challenges to both network operations (NetOps) and security operations (SecOps) and even requires a rethinking of how the two groups work together and improve their present levels of efficiency and flexibility.

Both NetOps and SecOps need full visibility to monitor and manage network performance and ensure security. While API calls or communication are generally rather lightweight in terms of the amount of information being sent and received, the criticality of API traffic is staggering. The average enterprise uses https://www.netskope.com/blog/netskope-cloud-report-hr-marketing-cloud-usage-grows-despite-looming-gdpr-deadline" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.netskope.com/blog/netskope-cloud-report-hr-marketing-cloud-usage-grows-despite-looming-gdpr-deadline" aria-label="nearly 1,200">nearly 1,200 cloud apps, and many of these involve the use of APIs for management, reporting, analytics and integration with other systems.

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