API products: the key to maximizing API value

What is an API product?

The term, API Product, has been adopted in many different contexts, but most will agree with the following definition:

"An API product is one or more APIs that approaches and delivers a service as a business-level capability, not just a technical interface."

The thing about APIs that often gets overlooked is this need to focus on reaching a specific consumer with a specific desire. Most organizations haven't framed their API production or packaged their API offering in a way that accounts for all the factors developers are looking for. In other words, they're looking at APIs merely as connectors and not treating their APIs as the valuable products they are. This might explain why many companies aren't experiencing the results they were expecting from their APIs.

The value of packaging API products

No doubt your teams have put in a lot of work developing API. But, approaching them as products forces an understanding that APIs are more than just technical interfaces between programs – they're business capability enablers that create value. Having a developer portal that packages, curates, and presents APIs in a way that makes the precise API easier to find, adopt, and embed into apps is the first step to treating your APIs as business capability enablers. Implementing the right kind of developer portal – or API marketplace – will not only helps achieve this, but will also help you overcome the obstacles to maximizing API value.

The right API management platform and developer portal for the job

To overcome the challenges and reap the benefits of an API-as-a-product strategy, you'll need the right kind of API developer portal. The key is to have one or more API marketplaces built on a universal API management platform that provides 360 degree visibility and governance of your APIs across any cloud, vendor gateway, and integration pattern.

Axway's Amplify Enterprise Marketplace gives your internal and external app developers a single place to find and use the precise API products required to embed new digital services into their product offerings. That's because your product team is able to curate your APIs in a contextual way that makes them more discoverable, adoptable, and applicable to the business, while letting you monetizing your API assets by treating them as the value-rich products they are.

Built on Axway's Amplify universal API management platform, Enterprise Marketplace gives app developers inside and outside your company the freedom to use the development tools that work best for them without worrying about restrictions imposed by various API gateway vendors or how APIs will be deployed.