Presentation at APIWorld 2013 in San Francisco on October 3rd. Compares the Do It Yourself (DIY) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) approaches.

1. BUILD, HOST AND MANAGE
YOUR CUSTOM API IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
All-in-one platform for Web APIs
http://apispark.com
October 3, 2013
Jérôme LOUVEL
jlouvel@restlet.com
CEO

2. WEB API PROJECT
TYPICAL LIFE CYCLE
Create Host Manage Use Promote
1) Do It Yourself (DIY)
long, risky, expensive but highly flexible
2) Platform as a Service (PaaS)
integrated, fast, cost effective

3. BUILD YOUR DATA SOURCE
Step 1

4. DEFINE YOUR DOMAIN MODEL
 Nothing new under the API sun !
 How is your domain model structured?
 Which information do you want expose?
 Common practices
 Domain entities and properties
 Reuse your data modeling experience
 Use OOA/D methodology or similar
→ Then implement it

5. DIY APPROACH
 Select a database technology
 that scales
 Specify the schema
 tables / sets, keys / queries, indexes
 Setup the database
 On premise or in the Cloud
 Ensure security, high availability and
performances
 From days to weeks

6. PAAS WAY
DATABASE AS A SERVICE

7. CREATE YOUR WEB API
Step 2

8. SPECIFY YOUR WEB API
 What do you want to expose ?
 Which resources ?
 How to structure them ?
 Common practices
 REST / Resource Oriented approach
 Resources, representations, variants
 Use ROA/D methodology and similar
→ Then implement it

9. DIY APPROACH
 Select an API framework that
 Lets you be productive and gets you on the way
 Leverages your skills
 Ensures your web API will scale and be secure
 Write the code
 Code, debug, unit tests
 Read, write, update your data
 Package the code
 From days to weeks

10. PAAS WAY
FULLY AUTOMATED

11. DEPLOY YOUR WEB API
Step 3

12. SPECIFY HOSTING NEEDS
 Who will access your API ?
 Public or Private ?
 Users, administrators, guests, support teams …
 Which SLA ?
 How much traffic do you expect ?
 How will you manage your API?
 Don’t forget about global security stakes
→ Then implement it

13. DIY APPROACH
 Choose a deployment target
 Private hosting with firewall / DMZ
 Public hosting : Cloud / Dedicated
 Select an API management solution
 Build your own from Open source, third
party products
 Leverage an API management service :
plug it in tasks and side effects
 Guaranty your SLA
 Test, QA, iterate, benchmark…
 From days to weeks to get started

14. PAAS WAY
INSTANT DEPLOY AND AUTO SCALE

15. PROMOTE YOUR API
Step 4

16. GIVING ACCESS TO YOUR API
 Think about API documentation
 Which client SDKs to provide ?
 How to measure your API success ?
 Monitor access to your API
 Usage statistics, analytics, trends
 Promote your API online
 Attract new API users

17. DIY APPROACH
 Write your API documentation
 Annotated your API code and generate ?
 Use HTML tooling ?
 Maintenance costs (versions sync)
 Provide client SDKs
 Write first SDKs
 Pray for community contributions for others ?
 Test, QA, iterate, etc.
 From days to weeks to get started

18. PAAS WAY
GENERATE CLIENT SDKS

19. PAAS WAY
BUILT-IN ANALYTICS

20. DIY VERSUS PAAS
SUMMARY
From weeks to months
Web API manager
Custom code
Web API framework
Generic PaaS
Hosting
Current practice:
• Team of engineers
• Heterogeneous stack
• Complex & expensive
to develop and
to operate
From minutes to hours
API Spark
• creation
• hosting
• management
• usage
All-in-one PaaS
Web API definition

21. HOW MANY APIS ?
TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN
Web Site
Pages + API
Browser
Connected
devices
Smart
environment
Business
Partners Internal IT
HTTP

22. FINAL THOUGHTS
 How to build 1 million API in 2017 ?
– with radically simpler PaaS for Web APIs
– truly democratize Web APIs !
Source: Wired / June 2013

23. KEEP IN TOUCH!
Learn about the ROA/D
methodology !
http://apispark.com
Twitter: @apispark
jlouvel@restlet.com