[MUSIC PLAYING]
MARIA SNAIDER: You may have heard the term API product,
and the first question that comes up
is, what is an API product?
In this next video, we will describe the API product
and define the components that make up the API product.
The API product is a modern concept
for machine to machine interaction.
As a product, it has similar components
to that of a traditional retail product.
If you build upon the concept of the API product,
focusing on the consumer, then you
might end up with a Google Apigee Edge API product
on the platform of the same name.
In the next few slides, we will deconstruct the API product
to help you understand the approach to design,
build, and deploy on the Google Apigee platform.
The traditional product has been around for hundreds of years
and is very easy to understand.
Think of your purchasing experience
as you shop for just about any product.
If you are on the market for a mobile phone,
you know that you can go to just about any online website
and search for multiple options.
In order to make a purchasing decision,
you want to read through a description of the phone
to determine if it has the features that you want.
You might review the how-to documentation
so you can understand how to use it and determine
if you like the user interface.
And of course, you might look at the price
to ensure that it fits in your budget.
The key components here are, one, a description
of the product designed with the consumer in mind;
number two, documentation on its use;
and number three, pricing information.
The same concepts applied to the traditional product
also apply to the API product.
Now let's deconstruct the API product.
The API is an asset needed by the application developer
to access the data required to build the application.
The API in and of itself should be easily understood,
and this starts with its design.
We recommend designing the API with the needs
of the application developer in mind.
For example, when building a customer service application,
and the only customer profile data needed
is the customer's name and address,
don't send all the rest of the customer profile data.
Limiting the data to just what is needed in the application
will improve performance and limit the exposure
to customer data, a problem that most corporations are
experiencing today.
Finally, it's not enough just to have a RESTful API.
The RESTful API is the first step
in providing easy-to-use APIs, and your application developers
will thank you for it.
Now take that a step further and ensure
that your developers are able to easily access and consume
your APIs.
You will need documentation that tells the developer how
to get started with the API by registering for it
and obtaining a key to access the data enabled by the API.
The three components together--
RESTful API, designed from the outside
in with the target developer in mind,
and associated with documentation
that enables a developer to quickly understand and use
the API--
is what makes up the API product.
Now let's talk about the Apigee Edge API product.
What differentiates the Apigee Edge API
product is the inclusion of reusable patterns,
packaging targeted to an intended audience
and the ability for application developers
to immediately try it out now through the Apigee Developer
Portal.
Reusable patterns, such as standard security, traffic
management, and error handling, reduce
the complexity and effort required to build a solution.
The application developer can focus
on innovating application features,
rather than worry about corporate standards.
In fact, your information security team
will also thank you once they have confirmed
that the enterprise security standards are incorporated
by default in the API product.
This minimizes the time to the developers first Hello World,
provides developers with a quick win and the confidence
to move forward quickly with your API product.
Your business leaders will thank you
for providing them with the ability to go to market faster.
The Apigee Edge API product-- designed from the outside
in with the application developers needs in mind,
along with reusable assets following corporate standards
like security, traffic management, and error handling,
coupled with documentation for the developer to get started
quickly and improve speed to market--
is what puts the Apigee Edge API product in high demand.
Thanks for your time, and be sure to watch the next video
to learn about the API product mindset.