The Evolution Of APIs: Past And Present

APIs have certainly evolved beyond the first application programming interfaces (APIs) of the late 1960s to become the focal point of software development today. But during the past three to four years, APIs have also evolved to become fully integrated with DevOps and front- and back-end development. Among the benefits APIs offer, well-developed APIs serve integral role allowing organizations to realize their business goals more efficiently and rapidly.And APIs continue to evolve, of course. Beerinder Rodey, senior product manager at TIBCO Software who works with the company’s Mashery API management product, discussed APIs’ recent developments with The New Stack’s Joab Jackson, managing editor, at the Cloud Foundry Summit North America in Philadelphia. Four or five years ago, for example, API management was more focused on distribution, Rodey said. Then, developers often would say “‘I’ve got APIs and I just need to be able to get them out to my consumers. I want to maybe put them in some packages and make sure they’re discoverable and get some docks in front of them,’” Beerinder said. “[It was] mostly a distribution layer.”