The key to unlocking better operational efficiency and agility, using an API built for tomorrow.

1. The key to unlocking better
operational efficiency and agility
The 100TB API

2. INTRODUCTION
The 100TB Application Programming Interface (API) is more than just a tool for building software
applications: it is the secret weapon we arm our customers with to help them reduce their time to
market, and increase their operational agility and efficiency. Every day, businesses rely on us for their
infrastructure needs, and our API is a core component for ensuring developers can get exactly what
they need from our services. The key to making this happen lies in how our API wraps around our
products, encompassing every core element and service. Only by tying it all together can an API truly
help businesses run more efficiently and ensure better customer experiences - that is what we are
here to help you achieve.
We are 100TB.com
100TB is a leading provider of innovative high performance business infrastructure solutions. We
operate on a global scale by storing and serving data from 23 locations around the world. We own and
operate five world-class data centers in Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, New York City and Salt Lake
City. In partnership with SoftLayer, we are able to deliver a global reach with a further 18 data center
locations.
In this white paper we outline the innovative features of the 100TB API, and explain how the
easy-to-use interface lets programmers automate features and increase agility in a cost-effective
manner. Programmers will learn how the 100TB API can be used to improve their own systems for
better mobility and resiliency.
We will also take a moment to explain the basics, and where our offerings fit into the big picture as APIs
have evolved in the recent past. While APIs are a relatively new technology, they have quickly become a
vital tool for increasing performance and productivity in a fast-changing business environment.
Increasingly APIs are a must for any
forward-thinking and fast-growing business in
the digitally connected world.
What makes the 100TB API different?
100TB’s API will do everything you expect from
a server API, but what makes our API really
interesting is how it works in relation to the
data center. The 100TB API will enable users to
exercise far more network control than what
has been the standard to date. We believe our
fresh approach is the future for how APIs will
be used in a cloud computing environment.
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3. Take a typical data center with its network, racks of servers, and a number of additional layers such as
backup servers, disaster recovery and networked and software-based services: the key to 100TB’s API
is how it wraps around all these elements, enabling easy control and interaction between all the core
elements. This is where the difference comes in: every core infrastructure product and service is
accessible via the 100TB API as it encompasses every single service we offer, be it network, hardware
or software.
What is an API?
Let us take a step back and look at what an API actually is. An Application Programming Interface is a
tool for building software applications. It is made up of a set of routines and protocols that determine
how components should interact, meaning a good API will make the job of programming easier by
providing a series of building blocks that help to reduce time to market by increasing productivity.
What are APIs used for?
APIs allow users to expand their capabilities beyond the basics. In the case of 100TB’s API, it lets our
customers expand beyond the server so they can also integrate third party applications and services.
Whether you take a popular web-based API like Google Maps or an API for operating systems such as
Windows, the principle is the same: programmers use the API to create applications that function
within those spaces. Twitter’s API enables other sites to embed tweets, for example, while the YouTube
API enables elements like analytics and live streaming. The 100TB API enables automated capacity
planning, application control and backup scheduling, to name but a few.
For businesses, the key benefits of an API is to automate processes to increase agility, mobility and
productivity. An API is the silent corner of most leading Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) businesses
as it is vital for enabling most large scale partnerships. An example of this is how many of the bigger
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4. companies in our customer base use our API to automatically provision new services. They do this by
using triggers which have been predefined within their chosen monitoring platform.
This allows our clients to scale their services so they can deliver a better customer experience.
Three waves of APIs
Looking at the wider API universe, an API can exist in a number of technical incarnations, be it hardware,
Java or web. The latter encompasses most APIs we hear about today. The first web-based API was
revealed in 2000 during a Salesforce conference, where it was introduced as part of the company’s
Software-as-a-Service sales automation offerings. eBay launched its own API later the same year,
followed by Amazon in 2002, in a move that meant developers could incorporate Amazon content into
their own websites.
This first wave of APIs was a good start but the big surge came later, driven largely by the big social
networks. A landmark in the second wave was when Facebook launched its first API and Development
Platform in 2006, giving developers access to information in its Social Graph, including friends, photos,
events and profile information. Soon after, Twitter launched its own API, partially in response to the
fact that third-parties had started creating rudimentary APIs to extend the social network’s capabili-
ties; the need was certainly obvious.
But web APIs really came into their own with the arrival of cloud computing. Thanks to this third wave
of APIs, businesses could deploy global infrastructure at scale to meet customers’ rapidly changing
needs. The technology is not just about “fun” social sites anymore. Instead, APIs are a viable tool for
running an entire business with greater agility, resiliency and efficiency. We are now in this third wave
of APIs, incorporating every vital element: operating systems, business software, mapping, digital
marketing tools, Software-as-a-Service, scalable cloud infrastructure - and much more.
ABOUT THE 100TB API
Our API is the key to making 100TB a platform
where our customers can extract what they
want from it, in whatever way is most useful for
them to run their businesses more effectively.
Let’s take a look at the particular advantages of
the 100TB API:
Automation
The wraparound API is a chance to transform a
business's relationship with a vendor as it
enables a company to automate more of its
processes to drive agility and efficiency.
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5. Take an IaaS provider like 100TB: this is usually
something that businesses want to keep in the
background and not have to think about too
much. Our API is here to help with exactly that
by making it easier to get things done, and
freeing you up to increase productivity and
drive value for your customers by focusing on
the things that matter to your business.
Regardless of which orchestration platform
your business might use, or whatever
monitoring software you’ve deployed to keep
tabs on your infrastructure, the 100TB API
makes it possible to manage this platform
automatically. Systems administrators rarely need to look at how your platform is performing, saving
time and improving resiliency as the monitoring is done automatically. Alerts will pop up only when
action needs to be taken.
An example of this in action is how a reseller can integrate our API into their third-party billing
platform, which is managed through the API in the company’s software. The API lets resellers order
services automatically, meaning that when an order is placed the API will simply execute it, eliminating
the need for a person to reach out to order from the vendor. A reseller can also use the API to manage
its whole environment from the control panel without having to do anything extra from the point of
view of support.
Operational savings
Automating services will often lead to increased agility, productivity and resiliency by speeding things
along, enabling processes to be completed faster and with fewer mistakes. Client satisfaction
increases with smoother customer service management, better insights and automated ordering
improves the customer experience by freeing up team members to focus on the more complicated
customer queries. But resellers can also save on operational costs by doing specific things, like
integrating the 100TB API into their third-party systems.
Businesses with high bandwidth requirements can use the API to monitor their usage, and enjoy cost
savings as the API adds or removes servers from their clusters as their bandwidth requirements vary.
The rise of video streaming, especially over-the-top content services and big data processing, has
made the latter a significant issue in the high performance hosting and infrastructure space.
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6. Capacity
We are seeing high demand for elastic and highly flexible infrastructure. This is all available with an API
command, which also takes over the task of purchasing, provisioning and managing any third-party
software the customer may have.
For example, take a company that is running an edge network. A content delivery network (CDN) may
have assets located all around the world, such as images or other download files. 100TB provides 23
data center locations globally, enabling CDN users to download identical files from a server that is local
to them. The benefit of the API comes in when the CDN experiences too much load in one location, and
more servers are required to support customers in that area. The demand may require ten more
servers to be added, in which case these will be automatically integrated into the platform.
The same would be the case with any kind of monitored high-performing network of services, as the
API can quickly determine when the load is too high, and automatically take steps to remedy the
problem if required by the customer.
Ease of use
The 100TB API is designed to be very easy for developers to use, regardless of how much experience
they may have. We encourage developers to play around with our API and see for themselves - how it
is intuitive it is to use. To kick things off, we have provided some code examples: take a look by entering
your API key into the console [https://cp.100tb.com/rest-api/docs/] - you can access working examples
of each call. This also makes it easy also for junior developers to get up to speed, and start adding value
to your business. We built our API not as a prescriptive model, but as a tool for developers who are
looking for a service that will help them build the exact infrastructure solution they require.
WHAT’S NEXT?
At 100TB we are uncompromising in our pursuit of
better customer outcomes. We enjoy pushing
boundaries and love to challenge the status quo in our
industry. This is why we took a fresh approach: instead
of just referencing parts of a company’s operations,
our API wraps around all elements of our data centers.
We believe this is a key part of the future of the data
center as businesses look to drive greater value as
well as increased agility and mobility. Our perspective
challenges how software-based networking on the
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7. API level has been done up until now, and we are
confident our API will enable users to exercise
far more network control than is allowed by any
other vendor.
We have a team of developers who work on our
API every day to make it an even more powerful
tool for our customers, and we have a number
of exciting new features in the pipeline this year.
A great example of the 100TB API in action is our
Service Management Platform: the 100TB
Console. Powered by the 100TB API, the Console
enables our customers to quickly carry out tasks
such as configuring existing services and provi-
sioning new ones. As always, our goal is to
enable and empower businesses to become
more efficient and agile, so they can direct their
resources towards what matters most. Just as
we are determined to keep innovating around
our API, we know that ultimately our customers
need a tool that allows them to do the same
thing: focus on building the next generation of
services to meet the needs of their customers
and delivering it to the market faster than their
competitors.
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