How to talk to business about API management?

74% of respondents to a survey https://www.postman.com/state-of-api/2024/) are currently implementing an API management approach rather than an SOA. If you identify with the other 26%, this could mean two things: either you’ve decided that you don’t need API management – which may be justified – or you’re having a very difficult time convincing the board.

In the latter case, it will be useful to have the support of the business side, who can lobby for your cause – even if it is the kind of architecture you cannot see with your own eyes.

A mixture of veiled threats and clear promises will work best to convince the business side.

Threats: Failure of the central SOA component

One day there is an outage. All systems that use the central component go down. Customers can’t place orders, service activation doesn’t work, payments don’t go through, and angry customers attack the contact centre, which only lengthens the queue because …. CRM goes down too, with the self-service system right next to it. IT tries to bring the ESB back to life while the business waits in the secretary’s office, summoned by a board member, estimating the loss of revenue and reputation. It’s not their fault but it;s their problem.

Promise 1: API management will make the difference.

Unlike SOA, which is mostly based on central components such as ESBs, API management is a distributed architecture. In the API architecture:

Each microservice, an independent application module that performs a single function, can operate autonomously, and the API gateway manages communication with them. In the case of monolithic legacy applications, the API gateway allows their functions to be wrapped into an API, which has a similar effect.

There is no single point of failure as with an ESB.

If there are problems with one API (e.g. payment processing), the other services (e.g. ordering) can still work.

The failure of one API will not bring down the whole business. Customers will continue to place orders, and payment problems will be detected and resolved more quickly thanks to the monitoring in the API gateway.

If your caller hasn’t fallen asleep yet, move on to more promises.

Promise 2: API management will impact business development

1. Increased flexibility and responsiveness

API Management allows new services and features to be introduced quickly without having to rebuild the entire infrastructure. As a result:

• IT will implement changes more quickly.
• Business can respond more quickly to customer or regulatory demands

2. Easier and cheaper scalability

In an SOA architecture, scaling a central ESB can be costly and complicated because (with notable exceptions) it must be scaled by analysing the integration needs of all systems. API Management supports:

Flexible scaling of microservices on demand – we scale what is needed

Easy deployment of services in different environments, e.g. hybrid cloud.

And?

Within a period of crazy promotions, a company can easily scale the microservice responsible for the shopping cart without having to increase the performance of the entire infrastructure.

3. Reducing costs and risks

API Management reduces operational costs by:

• Eliminating the complexity of central components (e.g. ESB in SOA).
• The ability to partially upgrade legacy systems (legacy) without completely rebuilding them.
• Built-in monitoring and analysis tools to quickly detect and resolve problems.

And in plain language:

Fewer failures and lower maintenance costs

4. And finally, possibly a higher level of security

API Management introduces advanced security mechanisms:

• Anti-abuse: API gateway tools can block unauthorised access, counter DDoS attacks and limit the number of requests (rate limiting).
• Authorisation and authentication: API Gateway supports standards such as OAuth2 or JWT to protect user data.
• Data encryption: Communication between APIs is secured, minimising the risk of data leakage.

Why it matters for business.

Securing customer data and transactions is key to building trust. Security breaches can cost a company millions in fines and loss of reputation.

How do you talk to the business about API management?

1. Speak their language – keep the jargon to a minimum
2. Highlight the financial and operational benefits
3. Emphasise the security and business continuity aspects

By the way – if you’ve decided on an API management approach or are still hesitating, get in touch with us at Execon and let’s talk. We know our stuff, we are the first partner in Poland of Kong Inc., of course known for Kong Konnect, which for five years has been occupying the top right quadrant of Gartner for API management. We can support you in all stages of your project, from creating and selling your vision, through implementation and development, to maintenance.