APIContext partners with Akamai to expand advanced API monitoring adoption. Learn more >

API Performance Highlights

api performance

This week, we start off our API performance highlights reel with something that’s been stumping us here at the office: Bank of Ireland UK.

Bank of Ireland, which can be found in the Open Banking UK Open Data collection, was in the Red Zone last week with a CASC score of 4.49. What happened?

Bank of Ireland api performance

The low CASC score is due to a massive issue with all of their monitored open data endpoints beginning on the 16th of September. The endpoints returned a range of HTTP 503 Service Unavailable, 502 Bad Gateway, and 404 Not Found responses.

So, what does that mean in the real world?

The client sends a request to the server that isn’t actually the server serving it. It’s a special type of server, knows a load balancer, which sits in front of everything else, so that’s what the clients interact with, and it takes the client request and figures out which back-end server it’s going to send it to.

Normally, if the back-end server was down or unreachable, you’d expect it to be a 503, because that load balancer should be performing health checks on the back end servers and it will register if it’s down.

But the fact that it’s also returning a 502 means it’s talking to it, but they’ve just done something that’s made it return garbage. And the 404s are the real plot twists in here.

When API Performance Affects Customers

One of the endpoints that we saw affected is to locate ATMs. This means that for the last four days, no one has been able to find the closest ATM to them. Now, this isn’t as urgent as, say, not being able to check your balance. But still, it’s a customer-facing API that people are going to notice.

So, let’s say customers have contacted Bank of Ireland about this. If it’s doing these redirects, it may very well be that DevOps at Bank of Ireland is sitting there thinking it’s working. 

Which means that when customer service tries to tell DevOps that something isn’t working, DevOps is saying, nope, it’s fine, and it’s back and forth with wasted time and resources until someone finally figures it out.

Meanwhile, customers are inconvenienced, DevOps is panicking, customer service is tap dancing, and it’s a mess.

This is the exact scenario that our CEO, David O’Neill, brings up all the time when trying to explain why APImetrics just makes good business sense.

Moving on.

More API Performance Highlights

SimpleSwap in the Exchanges collection was in the Red Zone with a CASC score of 5.23. This was due to a large cluster of outliers on the 12th combined with a few HTTP 521 Web server is down errors.

Dept of Energy api performance

Dept of Energy in the US Government collection was in the Red Zone with a CASC score of 3.56. We need to find a thesaurus and look up alternative ways to say how bad the Department of Energy’s API is. Jokes aside, they have got slightly better this week with the outlier rate dropping by 2.62% points to 17.5%. Having said that, they still have far to go.

Honorable Mentions

  • NewDay – Amazon Mastercard in the Open Banking UK Production, NewDay – Aqua in the Open Banking UK Production, Allied Irish Bank in the Open Banking UK Open Data category takes the overall title for best API again this week with a CASC score of 9.78.
  • Contentful in the GGV Capital API-First category is the fastest API again this week with an average latency of 48 ms, the same as last week.
  • Monzo Bank is the best-performing bank in the Open Banking UK Production category with monitored AISP (non-consent) endpoints again this week with a CASC score of 9.21, down from 9.25 last week.
  • Dept of Energy in the US Government category is the overall worst performing API again this week with a CASC score of 3.56, up from 3.26 last week.
  • 8 categories are topped by an API with a CASC score of 9.50 or more, down from 10 last week.
  • 15 categories are topped by an API with a CASC score of 9.00 or more, the same as last week.
  • 1 categories have bottom API with a CASC score of 9.00 or more, the same as last week.
  • 7 categories have bottom API with a CASC score of 8.00 or more, down from 15 last week.
  • 5 APIs (SimpleSwap in the Exchanges collection with a CASC score of 5.23, Cater Allen Private Bank in the Open Banking UK Production collection with a CASC score of 4.02, Tide Platform Ltd in the Open Banking UK Production collection with a CASC score of 5.66, Bank of Ireland in the Open Banking UK Open Data collection with a CASC score of 4.49, Dept of Energy in the US Government collection with a CASC score of 3.56) are in the Red Zone with a CASC score of less than 6.00 this week, up from 4 last week.
CollectionProjectChange
Corporate InfrastructurePagerDuty-2
Enterprise MessagingMicrosoft Graph (Teams)-1
ExchangesHuobi Global-4
FintechTruelayer-3
GGV Capital API-FirstAlpaca-6
IP Geolocatorsipgeolocator-1
Open Banking UK Open DataBank of Ireland-6
Open Banking UK ProductionBank of Ireland (UK) Plc-23
Open Banking UK SandboxesOBIE Sandbox-2
PSD2 InstitutionsDeutsche Bank-1
SearchFoursquare-2
UK GovernmentDEFRA-1
US GovernmentDept of Justice-5

Changes

Corporate Infrastructure

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
PagerDuty9.039.13119-2
Salesforce9.459.5432-1
Pivotal Tracker9.59.45231
Dropbox9.138.989112

Corporate Messaging

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange

Enterprise Messaging

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Microsoft Graph (Teams)8.488.5254-1
Cisco8.518.2451

Exchanges

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Huobi Global8.588.962319-4
Gate.io8.919.011916-3
BitMEX7.648.552926-3
bitFlyer9.059.191310-3
Binance8.58.742522-3
LA Token9.19.2119-2
OKEx9.469.5642-2
Korbit8.979.061615-1
CryptoCompare8.929.011817-1
Binance US9.189.2698-1
Liquid8.138.2528291
Coin Metrics9.579.51341
Bitfinex9.149.1810111
Bithumb8.558.6524251
Coinbase8.938.9817181
Bitrrex9.089.112131
Gemini9.619.54231
Coinpaprika8.898.9120211
3commas8.658.6822231
CoinMarketCap8.468.3326282
HitBTC8.728.6721243
Coinone9.199.168124
Bitstamp9.048.9115205

Fintech

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Truelayer8.678.76107-3
DNB currency APIs9.189.4664-2
Tink9.429.632-1
Stripe (Sandbox)9.499.6721-1
Paypal (Sandbox)8.879.0476-1
Intuit8.518.521110-1
Plaid (Sandbox)8.768.7398-1
Finicity9.419.35451
Yapily8.848.71891
Wise APIs (Sandbox)9.529.53132
Square (Sandbox)9.358.435116

GGV Capital API-First

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Alpaca8.78.962014-6
Unit8.849.061610-6
Algolia9.079.3594-5
Duffel8.88.961915-4
Courier8.688.892117-4
Stedi7.848.243027-3
EMnify8.48.642623-3
Shippo9.059.12119-2
Deepgram7.928.432826-2
Plaid8.478.562524-1
Stripe9.419.6421-1
MessageBird9.029.041211-1
Gretel8.88.8718191
Contentful9.479.52121
Persona7.846.829301
Fidel API8.518.5624251
Railsbank8.138.1527281
Alchemy9.059.0410122
Belvo8.838.8617203
Stytch8.958.8814184
Modern Treasury9.249.16484
Merge8.527.923296
Radar8.98.7815216
Lob9.088.948168

IP Geolocators

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
ipgeolocator9.49.432-1
ipdata9.439.521-1
ipwhois9.459.27132

Open Banking UK Open Data

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Bank of Ireland4.499.6593-6
Danske Bank9.479.64341
Nationwide9.299.59451
Santander8.738.58671
HSBC7.627.85781
Barclays7.37.53891
Lloyds Group8.988.86561

Open Banking UK Production

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Bank of Ireland (UK) Plc8.589.73241-23
Creation Cards8.89.7202-18
Cumberland Building Society9.019.161612-4
Danske Bank (Personal)9.519.6963-3
TSB8.759.032118-3
Ulster Bank NI8.969.111815-3
Barclays Business8.248.32624-2
Barclays Personal8.118.262725-2
Cashplus Bank7.828.082827-1
HSBC Bank (Business)8.618.792322-1
Sainsbury’s Bank9.679.6954-1
OBIE Directory8.718.82221-1
NatWest Production9.159.161211-1
Halifax9.029.0515161
Allied Irish Bank (GB)9.679.64451
Tesco Bank8.898.8519201
Vanquis Bank8.498.2225261
HSBC Bank (Personal)9.159.1313141
Lloyds Bank8.998.917192
Revolut9.769.58363
Bank of Scotland9.099.0314173
NewDay – Amazon Mastercard9.789.29187
NewDay – Aqua9.789.1421311
Virgin Money9.318.4382315
Capital One9.157.97112817

Open Banking UK Sandboxes

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
OBIE Sandbox8.138.9364-2
Bank of Ireland Sandbox8.529.443-1
Danske Sandbox8.48.52561
RBS Sandbox8.868.87352

PSD2 Institutions

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Deutsche Bank8.138.7332-1
ABN8.358.49231

Search

ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Foursquare8.888.9842-2
Bing9.078.67242

UK Government

 
ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
DEFRA8.498.832-1
Police.UK8.768.77231

US Government

 
ProjectCurrent CASC ScorePrevious CASC ScoreCurrent RankPrevious RankChange
Dept of Justice8.339.3183-5
Dept of Commerce6.717.83139-4
Bureau of Labor Statistics9.319.4121-1
US Census Bureau8.048.1598-1
FEMA7.727.351211-1
FEC9.078.97451
Dept of Housing and Urban Development9.469.4121
Veterans Affairs9.159.1341
NASA7.766.911121
Data.gov9.06.64513 
Share

Request A Demo

Find A Slot To See A Demo Or Speak To One Of Our Support Specialists

Ready To Start Monitoring?

Want to learn more? Check out our technical knowledge base, or our sector by sector data, or even our starters guide to the API economy. So sign up immediately, without a credit card and be running your first API call in minutes.

Related Posts

Join Us Now!

Join the 100s of companies relying on APIContext.