Globalization,Black Swans,and APIs

Delivering APIs to a global audience#gluecon #apinext

Sam Ramji, @sramjiVP StrategyApigee

There are more APIs than ever before

Data from Programmable Web

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Open APIs from 2005-2011

But that only tells part of the story

API traffic is up 20x from last year

Growth of Netflix API

Jan-10

Feb-10

Mar-1

0

Apr-10

May-1

0Jun-10

Jul-10

Aug-10

Sep-10

Oct-10

Nov-10

Dec-10

Jan-110

5

10

15

20

25M

onth

ly R

eque

sts

in B

illio

ns

Adoption is faster than with previous waves

And it’s going to go higher

Wim ElfrinksChief Globalization Officer

Cisco

With tons of different connected devices

Visualization by Apigee

So API Virtualization is even more relevant than a year ago

But the biggest change is that APIs havegone global

GLOBALIZATION

Globalization itself is not new

But it is more important than ever to APIs

This is about business and technology

Technology is about global reach

Business is about local delivery

And while the opportunity is global

The restrictions are local

And with Black Swans.

BLACK SWANS

Black Swans are catastrophic events

Black Swans are catastrophic eventsfrequently predictable in hindsight

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“ What we call here a Black Swan … is an event with the following three attributes.

First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility.

Second, it carries an extreme impact.

Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.

A strong correlation exists between Black Swans and “fat tail” distributions

Avoid the purple curve.

GLOBALIZINGAPIS

Three rules for globalizing APIs and hiding from the Black Swan

Distribute Locally

Serve Elastically

Specialize Universally

Cash is king

distribute locally

Cache is king

distribute locally

Vertical Caching

Horizontal Caching

Two-Dimensional Caching

Structure your API for cacheability

Offload OAuth and traffic processing

Your API is the control plane for your CDN

distribute locally

Mobile plus global equals spikes of insanity

serve elastically

Sometimes this is calledcatastrophic success

serve elastically

Anycasting

Cloudscaling

Geographic redundancy

serve elastically

One size fits none

specialize universally

Security protocol and version

Audit and regulation compliance

Device format and bandwidth

specialize universally

Distribute Locally

Serve Elastically

Specialize Universally

Following this guidance will drastically improve your operational resilience

And help you hide from the Black Swan

While scaling your business globally

IN CONCLUSION

Taleb offers 10 rules for a Black Swan-resilient society.

Rule number 6 is

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“ Don’t give children sticks of dynamite, even if they come with a warning label.

APIs have arrived on a global scale and they are dynamite.

APIs can dematerialize obstacles to your business

APIs can destroy your infrastructure

But you are not children and you have seen the warning label

Be forewarned and forearmed

Distribute locally, serve elastically, and specialize universally

THANK YOUQuestions and ideas to:

@sramji@apigee