Blog & News

Latest from APIContext

Apr 30, 2024

Why is API governance a dirty word?

APIdays New York was a great event and gave me the opportunity to talk at length about an emerging challenge and topic - API Governance. API evangelist Kin Lane has been focused on this for a while,…

Read more…David O'Neill

Feb 27, 2024

Navigating DORA in the API Ecosystem

In an era where every business is undergoing digital transformation, understanding regulatory frameworks like the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is crucial for both API producers and…

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

Feb 8, 2024

Cloudflare, Okta, and API Vulnerabilities

In the evolving landscape of digital security, the recent incident involving Cloudflare and Okta serves as a poignant reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in our interconnected systems. This…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Jan 4, 2024

Top 3 API Trends for 2024

Happy New Year! Here at APImetrics, we’re laying out some exciting plans for 2024. In our review of the last year and our forecast for the year ahead, we’ve identified the top 3 API trends that the…

Read more…Christine Cantera

Dec 13, 2023

The Week in API Metrics - Winners & Losers

If you don't know your API metrics then you don't know what your users are experiencing. Let's look at this week's winners and losers and where they fell on the API metrics leaderboard. Most Improved…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Dec 7, 2023

Our Letter to the CFPB re: Open Banking

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are currently asking for comments on their proposed rules for Personal Financial Data Rights. We have previously spoken about these new regulations in…

Read more…Jamie Beckland

Nov 30, 2023

Measure API Latency with APImetrics

APIs are the backbone of many of today’s businesses, powering everything from web applications to mobile services. The performance of these APIs – and especially their latency – plays a critical role…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Nov 29, 2023

Weekly "No Energy" API Performance Report

In a frankly stunning turn of events in the course of our API performance reporting, the Department of Energy experienced NO ERRORS LAST WEEK! We couldn't be prouder. In the vain of carrot and not…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Oct 18, 2023

Navigating Data Bridge Headwinds: How Contxt and APImetrics Equip UK Companies for API Security

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">The UK-US Data Bridge introduces both potential advantages and obstacles in API security and data classification. To help UK companies tackle these challenges, Contxt and APImetrics have joined forces. They guide businesses through three stages of API development: Planning and Documentation, Monitoring and Observation, &amp; Governance and Compliance.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

Oct 16, 2023

The Urgent Need for Stronger Data Classification in API Documentation

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">There is a need for strong data classification in API documentation, given the UK's Data Bridge with the US. There's a gap in data protection standards, posing risks when transferring sensitive data via APIs. APIs lack proper data classification, increasing the risk of misuse.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

Oct 4, 2023

This Week's API Performance Highlights

Largest drops in API performance Auth0 in the Corporate Infrastructure collection dropped 9 places. This was due to a general rise in server processing time at the start of the month, which did then…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Sep 27, 2023

API Performance Highlights

For this week's API performance highlights we're going to talk about Barclays, some Fintech, and of course, the Department of Energy. Let's get into it. In order: Barclays Personal in the Open…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Sep 26, 2023

Unlocking the Unmet Potential of Open Banking

Last week, I had the privilege of attending a panel discussion hosted by Natwest, focusing on the unmet potential of Open Banking . The panel featured industry experts from HSBC, UK Finance, Payment…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Sep 20, 2023

API Performance Highlights

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…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Sep 14, 2023

Why APIs Are Eating The World (Wide Web)

From David O'Neill, CEO &amp; Founder, APIMetrics; and Mayur Upadhyaya, CEO &amp; Cofounder, Contxt: According to Akamai , 83% of internet traffic now comprises API calls. That's right, for every 100…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Sep 6, 2023

API Performance Highlights: Back to the Grind

We don't know how else to tell you that API performance is everything. But just the same, here's a stat that will blow your mind: $92 billion is lost each year to poor API performance. Yes, billion…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Sep 6, 2023

The Role of API Standards in Data Privacy

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Adhering to open standards can fortify your APIs, boost data privacy, and foster innovation. Contxt aims to empower organizations to navigate the complexities of compliance and create new opportunities in the world of APIs.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

Aug 31, 2023

Why You Need to Think of APIs as Products

In today's interconnected world, APIs are critical enablers for digital transformation. They’re conduits for data flow between disparate services. And with the increasing centrality of APIs in modern…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Aug 30, 2023

Why Every Level of the API Context Maturity Model Matters

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">From open public API calls to open standards compliance, each level holds unique value and challenges for your organization's API security and effectiveness. Learn how to navigate the Context API Maturity Model and how each of these different levels of API matters.</p>

Read more…Jamie Beckland

Aug 23, 2023

Mapping Your Journey to API Maturity With Contxt

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">With the insights from our Ask the Experts series, it’s clear that it’s impossible to go it alone in this vast world of APIs. Discover practical solutions and insights with Contxt, to harness the full potential of your APIs.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

Aug 16, 2023

API Performance Highlights

We begin this week's API performance highlights with Unit. Unit’s API performance is generally fast and reliable, with low latency and minimal downtime. However, API performance can vary depending on…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Aug 12, 2023

Release Notes 2023-08-10

Here are the release notes for the 2023-08-10 APImetrics release, they are mostly minor fixes and improvements at this time. Feature Changes: Applied a fix to the audit pages to show that a resource…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 27, 2023

Your Weekly API Performance Highlights

API performance is, to put not too fine a point on it, everything. The whole world runs on APIs. If your APIs are slow, or non-functioning, or error-prone, then you're going to lose time, money and…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Jul 20, 2023

API Performance: When Every Millisecond Counts

Admittedly, it was a slow week in terms of API performance problems. Things are mostly working as they should, with the exceptions below among others. But the issues we did see highlight just how…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Jun 29, 2023

API Performance Weekly Highlights: Summer Woes

It may be summer, but API performance observation, verification and governance never takes a break - and neither do we here at APImetrics. Let's take a look at whose API performance was down and out…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Jun 15, 2023

API Performance: Your Weekly Report

This week in API performance, UK Open Banking took some hits. And whaddaya know, the Department of Energy is still doing badly. Let's get into it. First up, we've got some poor API performance from…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Jun 8, 2023

Navigating the Evolving API Landscape: Insights from The New Stack and the API Context Maturity Model

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Explore the future of API management through a detailed examination of industry trends highlighted in The New Stack's recent article, contextualized within the API Context Maturity Model. Discover how APIs transition from strategic tools to business infrastructure and learn how solutions like Contxt can assist businesses in managing APIs securely, efficiently, and in compliance with rigorous standards.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

Jun 7, 2023

API Performance: Weekly Highlights

Guys, you're never gonna believe it - the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce are still down in the API performance dumps. We've got some other usual suspects, too. Let's get into it.…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Jun 6, 2023

Introducing the API Context Maturity Model

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Previously, we have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of other API Maturity Models. In this post, we will discuss our own version of an API Maturity Model and how it grows with your business rather than hindering it.</p>

Read more…Jamie Beckland

May 25, 2023

Getting Started with API Discovery: A Comprehensive Guide from CDN to Application-Level Insights

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">API discovery is an essential first step in creating secure and efficient systems. From auditing and whitelisting APIs in the CDN to scrutinising application-level authentication, this guide lays out a comprehensive approach to get you started. With insights drawn from industry experts, you'll be equipped to navigate the API security landscape with confidence</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

May 25, 2023

Protecting Your APIs: Lessons from Max Schrems' Keynote at the European Identity and Cloud Conference

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Discover the critical importance of API security and data jurisdiction in the era of GDPR. Learn from Max Schrems' insights and the recent Meta data transfer case. Uncover how to initiate an audit of your APIs and ensure compliance to protect personal data across multiple platforms and systems. Step into a compliance journey that respects privacy rights and fosters a secure digital ecosystem.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

May 22, 2023

Existing API Maturity Models - Overview and Limitations

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">The industry is going through an API transformation, meaning there are a lot of insecure and unmonitored APIs lurking in companies. Let’s look at some of the most popular maturity models and discuss their positives but also their pitfalls.</p>

Read more…Jamie Beckland

May 17, 2023

Top Drops: Weekly API Performance Report

Step right up and get your latest API performance highlights! And you'll never believe - the U.S. Government's APIs are still broken! Up first we have a company we don't normally see in our API…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

May 17, 2023

Contxt Named as a Finalist in DSIT Most Innovative Cyber SME Competition 2023

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Join us in celebrating Contxt's recognition as a finalist in the DSIT Most Innovative Cyber SME Competition 2023. Discover our innovative approach to API security, the advantages of a layered security approach, and how we're democratizing API security. Don't miss our CEO, Mayur Upadhyaya, share insights at Infosecurity Europe 2023.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

May 17, 2023

Maximizing CIAM Investments: A Layered Approach to API Security

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">In a recent panel discussion, industry experts delved into the importance of a layered approach to API security and maximizing the return on investment from CIAM purchases. The discussion emphasized the crucial role of multicloud security, schema detection, API visibility, and compliance integration. The journey towards improved API security is an ongoing process, requiring a strategic approach and the integration of best practices into the API development lifecycle. Investing wisely in CIAM and implementing robust security measures is not just a smart business move, but a necessity in today's digital landscape.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

May 10, 2023

Weekly API Performance Report

This week, we're looking at the API performance foibles of RingCentral, OBIE, Yorkshire Building Society, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Energy. How do we do it, you ask? Well, let…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Apr 18, 2023

Exciting news! April is all about workflows.

Just a brief check-in to let you know what we’ve been up to recently. 2022 was all about API calls. 2023 is all about API workflows. As our user base grows by leaps in 2023, so does the adoption of…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Mar 23, 2023

Why You Should Be Comparing Your Environments

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Darkspark has released a new feature allowing you to compare the differences in sensitive data exposure between your environments. Here’s why it will be helpful in the remediation process.</p>

Read more…Sophie McKay

Feb 7, 2023

What Is A (Twitter) API Worth?

“Your worth is not what you have, but who you are.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo Twitter has done what they have done so many times, even before Elon Musk took over, and changed something on the fly. And as…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jan 26, 2023

API Issues: Microsoft Outage January 25 2023

There was a widely reported outage with Microsoft services on January 25. But like with most API powered service issues, the reporting, the provider reporting, and the data don’t always align. Our…

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Nov 23, 2022

Why we’re partnering with 42Crunch

Over the last 12-18 months something has become very clear to us – managing the API lifecycle is utterly critical to organizations of all sizes. And in confirming this fact, two trends have emerged.…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 17, 2022

The new RSS is... RSS

Some of us are old enough to remember when RSS (and Atom) were Big Things. Whatever happened to RSS, or syndication, or feeds, or whatever we want to call it? The short answer is social media. As the…

Read more…Paul Cray

Nov 8, 2022

DevOps Trouble in a Post-Twitter World

It is something of a running joke in the monitoring world that a lot of ops work is done via Twitter. And there’s a simple explanation for this: there’s something like a 30-minute gap between a…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 3, 2022

New Agents Online!

We have deployed new agents across AWS, Azure and Google and have expanded our network to include the following locations: Cloud Region Location IP address AWS Asia-Pacific Southeast 1 Jakarta,…

Read more…Nick Denny

Oct 21, 2022

APImetrics announces 400% use growth

Strong momentum follows successful acquisition, seasoned product leadership, and a bold vision for runtime API governance from performance through to security validation Seattle WA – October 21, 2022…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 19, 2022

p(50) Considered Useful

Why are we told to ignore the p(50) and concentrate on the p(99)? The obvious reason is that if the p(99) is fine, the p(50) will be fine. If we consider a perfect endpoint that behaves entirely…

Read more…Paul Cray

Sep 13, 2022

Brute Force Attacks and APIs - Watch Those Logs!

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">All developers have heard of a brute force attack, and maybe even tested it out themselves. However, just like how you check your logs for a brute force attack, we need to keep constant tabs on our API logs to detect security and privacy threats.</p>

Read more…APIContext Editorial Team

Aug 31, 2022

Postman and APImetrics: Better Together

Postman simplifies the API development lifecycle to the point that it has become a de facto platform for API-first teams. With over 20 million developers, it’s safe to say that everybody in the API…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 15, 2022

Anatomy of an Outage: Auth0

Auth0 suffered a major outage on June 21. It was part of a wider issue with Cloudflare, their cloud edge provider. Their status page tracks the problems reported, which now states the issue happened…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 3, 2022

The Hotel California problem of personal data

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Personal data suffers from the Hotel California problem - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. This dynamic causes consumers to take increasingly drastic actions against brands in order to assert more control. There must be a better way.</p>

Read more…Jamie Beckland

Apr 7, 2022

APImetrics Q1 Feature Boost

So many exciting new features! Tabbed views, performance metrics, the all-new API edit pane, Service Level Objective tracking &amp; more. As we race through 2022, we have a lot of feature changes…

Read more…Nick Denny

Mar 16, 2022

Performance Comparison Metrics - New look!

The New Homepage with performance comparisons Our goal at APImetrics is to give our customers an easy way to manage performance for their APIs, both the ones that you provide and also the ones you…

Read more…David O'Neill

Mar 1, 2022

Why We Are Building Contxt

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">For many risk and compliance teams, tracking personal data has become an exercise in frustration. It seems like an endless game of whack-a-mole, where more and more data sources, internal systems, databases, and rogue systems emerge.</p>

Read more…Mayur Upadhyaya

Oct 13, 2021

API Ratings Advisory Board

A few months ago we announced that we would be formally creating an API Ratings service. While we have now launched a premium version of API.expert, which will provide you with the latest in data and…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 21, 2021

API Ratings Agency

An Independent API Ratings Agency This week, APImetrics and Tomato Pay have announced our partnership to deliver meaningful production metrics for UK Open Banking. I wanted to outline our vision for…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 1, 2021

API Cloud Performance Analysis

APIMETRICS API CLOUD PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS REPORT HIGHLIGHTS SUCCESS OF CLOUD PROVIDERS DESPITE THE PANDEMIC Increased load from significant growth in global digital operations notable from summer…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 30, 2021

Simple Cross Cloud API Performance Data

Or... how to fine tune your containers Have you ever wanted to know if you've picked the right cloud or location for the job when you're building an Application? Well wonder no more, one of the…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 13, 2021

API.expert Weekly API Analysis: MailChimp

This Week’s API Highlights Google in the Social Networks API category and Department of Justice in the US Government category share the overall title this week with a CASC score of 9.69. UK in the UK…

Read more…Paul Cray

Apr 21, 2021

Being Open about (API) Outages

Raise your hand if you think a Status Page for a service you provide or use is automatically updated Auth0 had significant API outages on April 20, 2021 that lasted from about 15:30 UTC. until 19:20…

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 20, 2021

Auth0 Outage April 20, 2021 - 3 hours

Today's Auth0 Outage APImetrics, along with many other services, utilizes a 3rd party provider, Auth0 , to operate our sign-in and user authentication processes. What Happened? Auth0's services in…

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 1, 2021

Weekly API Analysis: Now With Duck Duck Go!

This Week’s API Highlights UK in the UK Government API category takes the overall title again this week with a CASC score of 9.76 down from 9.86 last week. Department of Justice in the US Government…

Read more…Paul Cray

Mar 4, 2021

API Analysis: Google and Microsoft Bing

This Week’s API Analysis Highlights GOV.UK in the UK Government category takes the overall title again this week with a CASC score of 9.85, down from 9.86 last week. Department of Justice in the US…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jan 29, 2021

API Ratings: Jan 18–25 | Messaging APIs

Something of interest Here’s something you don’t see every day – in fact, I don’t recall having seen it over the last year that we’ve been doing these API.expert reports: the Messaging APIs category…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jan 27, 2021

APIs 2020 Report: Corporate Infrastructure

In 2020, we launched API.expert. This allows you to see at a glance how many of the leading APIs have been performing each week and month compared to their peer APIs. The comparison uses our unique…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jan 13, 2021

API Ratings: Jan 5–12 | Messaging Latency

API Performance Yes, dear reader, it's still the first half of January 2021. But don’t fear, API.expert is still on the case with our weekly API ratings. For our API ratings, we look at over 100 APIs…

Read more…Paul Cray

Dec 25, 2020

Happy Holidays and Here’s to the New Year

In my lifetime, there have been lots of “you’ll always remember where you were” moments. The Challenger disaster and September 11, 2001, are the first two that always come to mind for me. But I think…

Read more…David O'Neill

Dec 16, 2020

Fintech API Ratings Summary: November 2020

Something of interest HSBC languishes at the bottom of the Open Banking – UK – Open Data category of Fintech APIs this month, as it so often does. The API has a 100% pass rate and is blisteringly…

Read more…Paul Cray

Dec 10, 2020

Fintech API Ratings, Nov 30 - Dec 7

Something of interest In the Fintech API November monthly report, we discuss HSBC, which is perennially fast and perennially languishes towards or at the bottom of the Open Banking – UK – Open Data…

Read more…Paul Cray

Nov 19, 2020

API Ratings: Nov 10-17 | Foursquare Outage

API Performance We look at over 100 APIs and pull all the metrics together to give you the API ratings for an organization’s APIs in a particular category with our patented CASC score. Something of…

Read more…Paul Cray

Nov 17, 2020

Authentication in Open Banking APIs

Open Banking APIs are, by necessity, secure. In the United Kingdom, an entity wishing to make a call to a UK financial service provider must be a trusted TPP (Third Party Provider). The exact model…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 16, 2020

API Rant: You Call THAT Authentication?

This is a slight departure from my usual rants, but only because authentication has occupied too much of my damn time this week. Many years ago, we wrote a White Paper on OAuth with the team at…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 11, 2020

API Ratings: Nov 3–10 | Microsoft Office

We look at over 100 APIs and pull all the metrics together to give you a general feeling for the service quality by way of API ratings in a particular category with a patented CASC score. Scroll down…

Read more…Paul Cray

Nov 3, 2020

APIs and the U.S. 2020 Election

The big 2020 election in the USA is ending today! And even though not all of us are in the U.S., there’s a lot of interest all round the world. When the results start coming in, people are going to…

Read more…Paul Cray

Oct 16, 2020

Monthly Financial API Ratings, Sept 2020

So, September was apparently only a month long - sounds fake, but OK - and we're ready to give you the monthly financial API ratings. We’ve now split out financial API ratings and the non-financial…

Read more…Paul Cray

Sep 15, 2020

API Rants - Trust but verify

There is an idiom in English, “you don’t let the foxes guard the hen house.” I’m not sure how well it translates, but the meaning is simple – don't have people or things who can’t necessarily be…

Read more…David O'Neill

Sep 2, 2020

API Rant: Begging the question...

API Rant... For this week's API rant, a little story from history. When I was a kid, back when telephones were a thing in the hallway, my friends would phone up and say, “is David there?” My father,…

Read more…David O'Neill

Sep 1, 2020

API Ratings August 17-24, 2020: Cisco Spark

The time of the week has once more come around for API ratings from the last 7 days! We now find ourselves heading towards the end of August and we are experiencing torrential rain here in my part of…

Read more…Paul Cray

Aug 18, 2020

OpenAPI Welcomes New Member APImetrics

Welcome to OpenAPI! APImetrics provides an enterprise-focused API monitoring solution that interfaces with REST and SOAP API protocols. Monitoring is supported by analytics and customizable downtime…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 5, 2020

API Ratings: July 27-August 3, 2020

We now find ourselves already arrived in August – and that time to report on API ratings over the past seven days. We launched API.expert earlier in the year as a simple way to provide everybody with…

Read more…Paul Cray

Aug 4, 2020

API Rant: Test In Prod or Give Up

API Rants: Test in Prod or give up. This is a public service rant. For the love of Mike/whatever being is responsible for your monitoring, please monitor your APIs in their production environment! I…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 23, 2020

API Ratings: 13 July - 20 July 2020

API.expert API Ratings We are already into the middle of July and the nights are starting to draw in. That time of the week has again arrived for us to talk about the State of the APIs over the past…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 21, 2020

API Rants: We Need To Talk...

Hi Monitoring Industry. We need to talk.... It’s not me- it's you. I first wrote a riff on this a couple of years ago, but chickened out of posting it. “Too controversial”, I thought. “I'm sure…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 17, 2020

API Ratings: 6 July - 13 July 2020

API.expert API Ratings We are already into the middle of July and the nights are starting to draw in. That time of the week has again arrived for us to talk about the API ratings over the past seven…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jul 16, 2020

API Ratings: Who Won the Month? June 2020

API.expert June 2020 Wrap Up We have stumbled out of the first half of the year(!) and into another month of the COVID-19 crisis. And that time has arrived when we must discourse on the State of the…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jul 14, 2020

Overlooked API Monitoring Problems

Overlooked API monitoring problems To understand how API monitoring problems get overlooked, there's an old story that goes something like this: You come across a person standing under a street light…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 25, 2020

API Ratings | June 15-22, 2020

API Rankings from API.expert We have somehow come to the fourth week of June (and still one to go) and reached that time when we must discourse on the State of the APIs over the last seven days. We…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jun 5, 2020

Monthly API Ratings | May 2020

We have tumbled out of May and into yet another month of the COVID-19 crisis as well as some other issues on top too. And that time of the month has arrived when we must discourse on the State of the…

Read more…Paul Cray

May 4, 2020

Monthly API Ratings | April 2020

We have lurched out of April and into yet another month of the COVID-19 crisis (we are going to be in that for a good while yet). And that time has arrived when we must discourse on the State of the…

Read more…Paul Cray

Apr 10, 2020

Monthly API Ratings | March 2020

We have finally staggered out of March and into another month of the COVID-19 crisis. And that time of the week and month has come when we must discourse of the State of the APIs not just over the…

Read more…Paul Cray

Mar 31, 2020

APIs in a Time of the COVID-19 Crisis

As the COVID-19 pandemic has so painfully demonstrated over the last few weeks, we live in a connected world. That has been true for centuries. The Black Death probably began in Central Asia in…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jan 27, 2020

Interview with our CEO

Our CEO, David O'Neill did an interview with David Berlind of ProgrammeableWeb on our new service API.expert - feel free to check it out, either at YouTube or listen to the Podcast at SoundCloud .…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jan 7, 2020

Say Hello to API Ratings from API.expert

One of the recurring themes we hear when speaking to clients is that they just want the data. They don't want the challenge of setting up and configuring and maintaining API calls. They want answers,…

Read more…David O'Neill

Feb 16, 2019

Healthcare API Economy: Long Overdue

&nbsp; This week, Don Rucker MD, the National Coordinator for Health IT, proposed a healthcare API economy . This is something that's long overdue, especially in the USA, and shadows the changes that…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 15, 2018

APIs and the Cloud: An Impact Study

In their recent white paper, ThousandEyes concludes that all the clouds offer good choices from the perspective of network performance with solid backbones for data transfer. But that’s only part of…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 12, 2018

Monitoring APIs: Expect The Unexpected

When it comes to monitoring APIs, getting a 2xx back is not enough. You have to check that the returned payload is what is actually expected. So, if the expected payload contains 14 language options,…

Read more…Paul Cray

Nov 5, 2018

One API Monitoring Tool To Rule Them All

When I've thought about monitoring tool (s), especially in the context of API monitoring tools recently, I've been reminded of this famous phrase from The Lord of the Rings saga: One Ring to rule…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 29, 2018

Monthly Fintech API Performance Dashboard

As we get closer to launching some data-only products focused on our non-technical users, we wanted to make some data available that's easy to read and understand. So, the first 5 Fintech API…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 8, 2018

Why API Monitoring?

Why API monitoring Licensed under CC license One of the questions we get asked all the time is the deceptively simple: Why API monitoring? After all, companies and DevOps groups use LOTS of different…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 25, 2018

CMA9 Open Banking public APIs: Latest News

The story of our previous monthly surveys of the UK CMA9 Open Banking public APIs has been that roughly 30% of the APIs have fallen below an acceptable score of 800 or more. While things have…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 21, 2018

New Agent Locations Available

Quick housekeeping announcement, we've just expanded our agent network again. Adding 10 more locations, mostly from Google - covering multiple European locations and for the first time adding in…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 14, 2018

APImetrics DevOps Product of the Year

Dr Paul Cray of APImetrics Accepts the Award London, June 12 – APImetrics, a real-time API and cloud service monitoring and analytics company, was named DevOps Product of the Year during the TechXLR8…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 13, 2018

Think Before You cURL

I just want to reiterate something that I wrote a blog post about last April. When it comes to monitoring your APIs, it really isn't a good idea to rely on cURL scripts. Let's say you just want a…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jun 6, 2018

"Our Experience So Far" – FI.SPAN Talks APImetrics

FI.SPAN is a SOC compliant, cloud-native API orchestration platform that turns APIs into tangible & impactful service experiences for their clients. FI.SPAN believes that the smartest and most adaptable banks will thrive in this world...

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 5, 2018

AISP: It's All Kicking Off

You know the future has arrived when you see an advert for it for it on an obscure Sky satellite channel. In this case, what is kicking off is the availability of apps from Account Information…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jun 5, 2018

KPIs, SLOs and Other API TLAs

There's a fascinating article over at Medium by on API Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by Michael Leppitsch, who works on Digital Strategies for Global Enterprises at Google Cloud. Here at…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jun 5, 2018

Microprocurement: Don't Nonitor. Monitor!

Our friend Kin Lane has an interesting article over at his essential API Evangelist site that includes a shout out for us. Kin discusses the trend in US government circles towards microprocurement.…

Read more…Paul Cray

May 14, 2018

APIContext In Japan - May 22-25

APIContext is excited to be part of the Washington State Trade Mission to Japan, the trip will be focusing on AI, and we're looking to make connections with any Japanese company or companies doing…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 2, 2018

API Monitoring: There's No Taking The 5th

Most of the world is probably aware of the 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Most countries have their own version: No person … shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a…

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 16, 2018

API Standards: Who Watches the Watchmen?

I am fond of the saying, Who watches the watchers? When applied to the API sector, it addresses a very real problem: How do you manage standards and adherence to standards in the API space? Nacha ,…

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 7, 2018

Daily and Weekly Status Mails

We've now added one of the features that everybody has been asking for, daily and weekly alert status mails. The emails will initially cover the basics - the number of calls you've made, the number…

Read more…David O'Neill

Mar 30, 2018

APIContext + Your Passive Monitoring Stack

Your passive monitoring stack is vital in understanding how your applications, and the APIs on which the applications depend, are being used over time and how they are behaving. But there are many…

Read more…Paul Cray

Mar 22, 2018

200 OK? Check Again.

Something we've talked a LOT about is when an API returns a HTTP 200 ok code, but the API returns an error. This can be a challenge for a gateway's passive monitoring and backend services to spot…

Read more…David O'Neill

Feb 14, 2018

Database Issues currently slowing reports

We're currently experiencing performance issues with the database which may be impacting some users experience, especially with reports and graphs. We currently expect this to be resolved by 22:00…

Read more…David O'Neill

Feb 8, 2018

Major Feature Changes

Introducing Schedules Moving forward, we are replacing our system of deploying API calls with schedules. Here's how it works. Previously, you'd need to pick locations and clouds from which to run…

Read more…David O'Neill

Dec 1, 2017

Rankings for Business Critical APIs

Every day, APImetrics run hundreds of thousands of API calls against some of the leading APIs in use. They're the APIs you may depend on, but you don't have a clear Service Level Agreement or…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 9, 2017

Zen and the Art of API Monitoring

This week I spoke at the APIDays Banking Event in Berlin. The topic of my talk was a riff on the title of Robert Persig's 1974 classic, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . If you haven't read…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 6, 2017

Berlin 2017 - Speaking at APIDays

I'll be speaking tomorrow at the APIDays Banking Event in Berlin on Zen and the Art of API Monitoring - I'll aim to post the talk but the gist is simple - in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance…

Read more…David O'Neill

Sep 28, 2017

Mini Case Study - When Did it Break?

Basepair is a next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) data analytics SaaS trusted by scientists at Harvard Medical School, Rutgers, Boston Children's Hospital, and others. They make NGS data analysis as simple as booking a flight online. Basepair provides a RESTful interface to add new samples, run analysis, download results, among other...

Read more…David O'Neill

Sep 27, 2017

Why Measure Your API?

Here's a short tale of 2 API calls. They're both from large, well-known American companies. The API calls are doing exactly the same thing. We won't say what, because that would give the game away –…

Read more…David O'Neill

Sep 25, 2017

Trust But Verify...

Cloud API Hosting Comparisons One of the ways people use APIContext is to validate what their hosting and hosting optimization services are actually doing versus what they say they are doing. You…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 31, 2017

Location Latency Mapping

We've been trying to work out the best way of visualizing latency data by location and we're pleased to announce our first version. We're taking the data for each of the steps of an API call we log;…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 31, 2017

New Resource: Global HTTP bin network

Measuring performance from different regions and different clouds is core to what we do and providing developers, managers and product owners with the tools needed to understand what the impact of…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 7, 2017

Feature Updates

Two changes this week. Reporting (All Locations) You can now generate reports which show the combined results from all locations. &nbsp;

Read more…David O'Neill

May 1, 2017

Anatomy of a Dying API

We know from history that API owners can be poor at communicating changes in their APIs. Twitter, for example, is known for burying the lede concerning API changes at the bottom of otherwise unrelated updates. One client also completely changed their OAuth configuration without actually telling a single user of their APIs. It completely shut off a number of applications. With early warning you can know that something is coming to get you. Or at the very least, you'll know to contact your service provider for more data – before the dependent apps and services get shut off for good. One of the values of monitoring the APIs...

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 27, 2017

Are You Monitoring Your API Security?

Marcelo Graciolli licensed under CC BY 2.0 There are many ways to monitor API security on the web. Some APIs might have no security – you can make a simple HTTP call and get an answer back – but if…

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 19, 2017

APIContext - API Metrics 2016 By The Numbers [INFOGRAPHIC]

After conducting the largest analysis of API performance ever undertaken, we've reached the same conclusion as we did when we first started with APIContext. Half of the APIs we survey STILL fall below expected quality standards. As Kin Lane, the API Evangelist says, "You wouldn’t operate an API without having the right data regarding...

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 7, 2017

Census Data #API is Down

The US Census Bureau tweeted this about their API on the morning of Apr 6, 2017. They even sent us an email: We are currently experiencing an extended interruption in service for the Census data API.…

Read more…Paul Cray

Mar 30, 2017

That 3AM Call

It's 3 a.m. You're dead asleep. The phone rings. You blunder around trying to locate your phone. Oh thank God - it's work! Only work. No one is dead. It's the support desk. Your most important…

Read more…Paul Cray

Mar 17, 2017

Updates for March 17 2017

A quick programming note for everybody, and the obligatory Happy St Patrick's Day, we've released some new features this week that will improve the stats functions. You can now view statistics for…

Read more…David O'Neill

Feb 16, 2017

APIContext gets a fresh new look for 2017

Hot on the heels of our Improved Call Data Visualizations and Reporting, the APIContext user interface now has a fresh new look for 2017. Our improved interface makes our service even more…

Read more…David O'Neill

Sep 27, 2016

Case Study: First Utility

First Utility is a leading energy supplier in the United Kingdom. They were having issues with the quality of the APIs that were powering their mobile apps. The challenge they faced was simple. They had extensive testing and monitoring including API Gateway monitoring, Selenium based web test tools and Splunk based logs. But they were hitting performance issues...

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 16, 2016

Two Percent

We're in the process of rolling out some new analytics tools and we've been looking at some headline numbers. The first headline number is 83,000,000 - that's how many API calls we've run since we…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 13, 2016

What is your API doing at 10pm?

An article including a number of things we've discovered over the last year and very handy for anybody who is starting to try and figure out what a Service Level Agreement (SLA) actually means for an…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 4, 2016

False Clusters and New DNS Handling

As one of our feature enhancements we've improved the way our agents work, we are now consistently capturing key data on the actual API performance including: DNS Lookup time: i.e. 28355µs (28ms)…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 4, 2016

Going Back In Time

We frequently check general performance data to look for 'odd' responses and we found an interesting one today which involved an API call on a test server which took -284,027ms, or just a little…

Read more…David O'Neill

Mar 30, 2016

Case Study: New Zealand Ministry of Business

Open government initiatives and a move to use SaaS and Cloud services is changing how governments use and access APIs. In New Zealand, the Ministry of Business and Innovation provides access to a range of government services targeting investors and businesses across New Zealand ...

Read more…David O'Neill

Jan 19, 2016

Outages - were you ready?

Twitter had an extremely rare outage today, as our recent social media report showed, they're one of the most reliable services we measure. But they do have outages and given the range of services…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jan 9, 2016

Quick Update - Happy New Year

We'll have more details out shortly but there's a lot of features and changes coming in the next few days, once we're through the final testing. These include, but are not limited to: System wide…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 13, 2015

Programming Notes, Nov 13

Hello, welcome to yet another development update. Our test team were very quick verifying our latest sprint, so we already have a new version live. Two releases in one week, we're really treating…

Read more…Nick Denny

Nov 12, 2015

Programming Notes, Nov 10

Welcome to the first of a regular series where we update you on the newest features added to APIContext! Today's release features: API Blueprint support in the importer. Remote Locations updated with…

Read more…Nick Denny

Aug 6, 2015

The Internet is Coming for your Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gone from a “buzzword” term, to a potential multi trillion dollar industry. No longer is the idea of a “smart home” or connected self-driving cars a science fiction…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jul 29, 2015

Tracking API Calls with APImetrics

Using APIContext to provide easy to track calls. We already provide logs of all API calls that include a detailed time stamp so you can find a specific item. Here’s another way to track calls through…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jul 22, 2015

API Documentation Needs Love too

At APIContext, we mainly deal in the analytics of APIs and the corresponding infrastructure that supports them. These traits are easily quantifiable and the results make for simple benchmarking and…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jul 8, 2015

API Health Report #1

The Impact of Cloud Service Provider on API Performance If you would like to download the full report for free, click HERE ! When creating a mobile application, developers normally have significant…

Read more…Paul Cray

May 20, 2015

We Have a New Website!

It has been a long rough road, but we are excited to announce the release of our new website! With our goal being to get rid of the headaches that surround API performance issues, we realized the…

Read more…Paul Cray

May 11, 2015

API News Rundown 5.11.15

A weekly rundown of all things API! At APIContext, we love APIs and everything that makes the API Ecosystem what it is. Keep up to date, learn of new tech, or just get some good reading in! From…

Read more…Paul Cray

May 8, 2015

A Featurette on our Features

We are always striving to make our tool better, and with that comes updates to features! Below is more information on our customizable Sharable Report , Dashboard and our Test Call Scheduler . What’s…

Read more…Paul Cray

May 4, 2015

API News Rundown 5.4.15

A weekly rundown of all things API! At APIContext, we love APIs and everything that makes the API Ecosystem what it is. Keep up to date, learn of new tech, or just get some good reading in! From…

Read more…Paul Cray

Apr 21, 2015

JSON and XML Content Error Reporting

One of the common problems we see with APIs is a HTTP 200 code, but a mobile app, in particular still has problem with the results. That usually means there is a content error in the XML or JSON that…

Read more…Paul Cray

Apr 20, 2015

API News Rundown 4.20.15

A weekly rundown of all things API! At APIContext, we love APIs and everything that makes the API Ecosystem what it is.. Keep up to date, learn of new tech, or just get some good reading in! From…

Read more…Paul Cray

Apr 14, 2015

API News Rundown 4.14

A weekly rundown of all things API! At APIContext, we love APIs and everything that makes the API Ecosystem what it is. With that in mind, here is the first of many weekly API News posts. Keep up to…

Read more…Paul Cray

Apr 7, 2015

Added Support for SOAP APIs

At APIContext we are always striving to stay agile and with that we want to continue enhancing our product to be the perfect API Performance Monitoring Solution for Enterprise. With more customers…

Read more…Paul Cray

Apr 2, 2015

Tech Talks - When APIs Need to Meet SLAs

&nbsp; APIContext CEO David O'Neill sits down with Tech Talks Central at MWC and discusses APIs, Monitoring, and SLAs. See the original article here: Tech Talks Central &nbsp; 1:51 “..we built…

Read more…Paul Cray

Mar 31, 2015

Why Automated API Testing is Necessary

With the rise of the Microservice business model, more and more companies are using third party plugins within their services. For example, if your new company needs to build a location based App,…

Read more…Paul Cray

Mar 10, 2015

Cookie Authentication

We support Cookie Authentication using the Post-Conditions section of a test, in conjunction with a multiple-test test run. The general idea would be a test run with the follow: Call an API which…

Read more…Paul Cray

Jun 2, 2014

Bit of Press About APIContext

Geekwire has a piece up about us in their Startup Spotlight piece this week. Please check it out. And, if you haven't signed up for an account yet, please do so. It's free to sign up and you can get…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jun 2, 2014

FIVE MILLION

Big milestone! We have now passed more than 5,000,000 tests run by our product since we started it running last year. That's more than 110GB of test data on a huge range of APIs stored in our results…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 21, 2014

New Group Level Alerts + PagerDuty

New for group level accounts is the ability to set different email addresses to be alerted when certain conditions are met for any of the tests in your organization. We currently provide alerts for…

Read more…David O'Neill

May 7, 2014

Automated API Sample Code calls

We're really delighted to be able to announce this new feature! We've added the ability to see reference code for API calls you test using APIContext, just by clicking a tab. It's available for free…

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 10, 2014

OAuth - The Standard That Isn't

This White Paper is published jointly from APIContext and OAuth.io - a copy can be downloaded from here . Please feel free to comment or contact us to ask questions. APIContext, WA, USA and OAuth.io,…

Read more…David O'Neill

Apr 3, 2014

New Reporting Format... Now with errors

For our signed in users, and if you haven't signed up for a free account, you really should - you get much better access to the data, we've had a slight change to the database and we're now recording…

Read more…David O'Neill

Mar 27, 2014

New features.... March 2014

It's been a little while since we updated you, but we've been busy. There's a lot of new features shipping next month and I wanted to let you know about some of those. Firstly, we now handling…

Read more…David O'Neill

Dec 18, 2013

New Statistical Models and Alerts

Newly added features today, we're now providing users with statistical tools for understand the performance of their APIs better. This includes the following: Graphs based on raw results- so you can…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 27, 2013

November News and Updates

It's been a busy month here, so here's a quick round up of the news and new features we've got coming. News We went out with our Press Release that more than half of the services you need for your…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 15, 2013

Creating Fast Comparison Reports

Suppose you're trying to decide between different location search providers for your mobile app or service. You're certainly going to look at price. But you also need to consider general speed and…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 15, 2013

As easy as...

We like to stress that creating tests, even ones with authentication is extremely simple with APIContext. Between our Community of tests and developer setups, it's very quick and simple to create…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 14, 2013

So what does happen at Bing every day?

We'd REALLY like to know what happens at Bing every day at about 21:00UTC - the performance spike is interesting. It buries the real story about the performance of the 3 major search engines. Google,…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 12, 2013

API Support the use of errors - Yahoo BOSS

One of the things we have noticed as we increase our test coverage, is that in addition to the poor quality of the documentation, there a lot of randomness in the errors we get sent back. Today's…

Read more…David O'Neill

Nov 12, 2013

Community Features - Sharing Tests and Keys

We've been working hard on making it very easy not just to test APIs, but also to share your tests and tokens too. We've now implemented the first set of features for community use. The first set of…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 30, 2013

Authentication Challenges - Salesforce

One of the key features of APIContext is our ability to handle oAuth tokens for tests and calls requiring authentication. As we've rolled out our beta program we've found that there's more variation…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 29, 2013

Improved Test Timing Features

One of the challenges reported to us during the beta testing phase has been problems with running tests too close together. To counter this we've now gone live with some enhancements to the test…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 24, 2013

Another catch - Google outage...

Google's log in APIs started through some errors today and were down for a test cycle so about 15-30 minutes of HTTP 502 errors. Remember to sign up for APIContext if you want your own alerts on API…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 24, 2013

Launching at Geekwire Start Up Day

Just a note to say that we'll be launching out of beta on Friday October 25th at the Geekwire Startup Day here in Seattle at the Showbox, SoDo. If you can make it, please come by and say hello and…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 21, 2013

Facebook Outage

It's been covered in the press but we wanted to mention that we picked up the Facebook outage yesterday. Starting at 12:00UTC on 10/21 and lasting until 14:30UTC Sharing was pretty much impossible to…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 21, 2013

New Reporting System

A new reporting system for easy generation of status updates, all generated from a single bit of code. &lt;script…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 15, 2013

External Reporting API

By popular demand we've enabled an API to allow you to extract data from your reports and embed it in your own web properties as a report or dashboard. This is going to be a premium feature, but for…

Read more…David O'Neill

Oct 5, 2013

New Features Week Ending 4/10

The end of another week and some new features have come online. Firstly, we've added Tags. This will make it easier to identify tests for reports and if you've got a lot of different APIs. Secondly,…

Read more…David O'Neill

Sep 27, 2013

New Features - here now

We're working to coming out of Beta but we're still letting people sign up for the Beta program - just fill in the form from the dashboard page here. We're really excited with the new features that…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 22, 2013

Update - API Wizard

So we've just gone live with V1 of our API Wizard in the Beta trial. This is very much the Beta version, there are some rough edges in there but we get notified if you find a bug, so please go ahead…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 13, 2013

Housekeeping: Bug Reporting for Beta Users

Just a housekeeping note for Beta users. We're experiencing a problem with the latency graphs at the moment that's preventing the data from being displayed correctly. We're moving to a new graphing…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 9, 2013

Housekeeping August 9 2013

The more astute reader will notice we're showing low pass rates on LinkedIn , but also no errors. The API is currently reporting a warning to us. We had resolved one issue with an expired use token -…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 9, 2013

Instagram Glitches 8/8 and 8/9

Instagram has been having a bad end to the week with several failures pulling their pass average down to 99%... Additionally, they've been slow, taking average latency up to 1 second. Sign up for a…

Read more…David O'Neill

Aug 8, 2013

Monthly API Performance July 2013

Total Tests conducted in July: 53,485 (oAuth), 10,057 (Shares) and 43,543 (User Profile Tests) against 16 different services. House keeping issue: We encountered some token refreshing issues with the…

Read more…David O'Neill

Jul 3, 2013

API Performance June 2013

Total Tests conducted in June: 48641 (oAuth), 6817 (Shares) and 37,692 (User Profile Tests) against 16 different services. oAuth Testing: Total failure rate of 0.4% of all services tested, with just…

Read more…David O'Neill