How to Design and Manage APIs

Today everything truly is connected to everything, and APIs are the connection mechanisms. Many companies are finding that their use of APIs has accelerated over the past 12 months, and that it will continue to accelerate during the next 12 months. APIs aren't really a new technology; they've actually been around for a long time. What is new is that they are in far broader usage today than they have been in the past. As of late 2015, the ProgrammableWeb API directory listed more than 14,000 APIs. When thinking about designing and managing APIs, a number of important questions arise. Why are APIs so well used and what effect would they have on your business? What is the impact of the expanding API economy on both providers and consumers? What are API tools and how can an investment in tools be an extremely cost efficient foundation for production grade API use cases?