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 industry will be focused on in the coming months.
API Trend #1: API Discovery
The adoption of APIs has introduced a significant challenge: the existence of APIs in production without organizational awareness. This lack of API visibility is more widespread than the industry knows, and it poses serious security risks and business disruptions.
API discovery is crucial for identifying all your APIs. It helps prevent redundancy, pinpoint potential security risks, and optimize resources. The result is improved integration and interoperability across different systems and applications.
APImetrics monitoring tools can help you identify the various endpoints associated with an API. You can also identify dependencies between different APIs, which helps you discover related APIs that you rely on.
Want to observe live calls from your APIs? The APImetrics inventory function allows you to generate an API Key that will integrate into your application and allow you to view live API calls, as well as all your current API calls, and show these in your Inventory.
From here, you can add any of these API calls to your API Call List and add them to schedules or workflows. Additionally, you can upload your OAS specification to compare to the live traffic for any inconsistencies between the intended architecture and the implemented architecture.
API Trend #2: API Validation
API validation checks whether an API meets specified requirements including functionality, performance, security, and other quality metrics. It ensures that the API functions as expected and meets user needs – without any vulnerabilities.
Validation involves adhering to an API contract, which is defined in the OpenAPI Specification (OAS). This outlines expectations for input/output formats, data types, and available methods.
APImetrics tools verify the correctness of data in API responses and ensure that it meets predefined criteria. And with continuous monitoring of APIs, our clients can validate their APIs’ ongoing performance and adherence to specifications over time. You can also test and validate API responsiveness, latency, and throughput under different conditions, so you can be sure it meets performance expectations.
API Trend #3: API Conformance
API conformance ensures that the implementation of an API aligns with its intended use. It involves validating whether the API meets the specified contract and adheres to governance rulesets.
Conformance statuses include “Conformant” for passing all rulesets, “Not Conformant” for failing at least one ruleset, and “Not Validated” for APIs not included in a governance profile. Different versions of an API may have varied conformance statuses.
There are many different conformance standards within the API security industry. APImetrics provides detailed reports and analytics on API conformance. This includes information on which APIs are conformant, which rules they pass or fail, and any deviations from expected behavior.
