I’ve been profiling the API management space for almost four years now, and one of the things I keep track of is what some of the common building blocks of API management are. Recently I’ve pushed into other areas like API design, integration and into payment APIs, trying to understand what the common elements providers are using to meet developer needs.
Usually I have to look through the sites of leading companies in the space, like the 38 payment API providers I’m tracking on to find all the building blocks that make up the space, but when it came to cloud computing it was different. While there are several providers in the space, there is but a single undisputed leader—Amazon Cloud Services. I was browsing through AWS yesterday and I noticed their new products & solutions menu, which I think has a pretty telling breakdown of the building blocks of cloud APIs.
The reason I look through at these spaces in this way, is to better understand the common services that API providers are, that are really making developers lives easier. Through assembling a list of the common building blocks, it allows me look at the raw ingredients that makes things work, and not get hunt up with just companies and their products.
There is a lot to be learned from API pioneers like Amazon, and I think this list of building blocks provides a lot of insight into what API driven resources the are truly making the Internet operate in 2014.