apidays LIVE Hong Kong 2021 - API Ecosystem & Data Interchange August 25 & 26, 2021 The API Trends for 2022 and beyond Jimmy Tsang, EASG Committee at Hong Kong Computer Society

1. The API Trends in
2022 and Beyond
By Jimmy Tsang
Enterprise Architecture Specialist Group (EASG)
Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS)

2. Hong Kong Computer Society
香港電腦學會
www.hkcs.org.hk
2

3. Vision
To serve Hong Kong as the leading ICT professional body.
3

4. 1. Talent Cultivation
2. Professional Development
3. Job Assistance & Career Advancement
4. Member Services (e.g. Networking Opportunities & Exclusive Benefits)
5. Industry & Community Engagement
4
5 Core Values

5. 5
Professional Development & Training --- Specialist Groups
Artificial Intelligence Convenor: Prof. Andy Chun
Cyber Security Convenor: Mr. Ricky Woo
Enterprise Architecture Convenor: Mr. Dave Chen
Financial Technology Convenor: Mr. Frazer Lam
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Convenor: Mr. Arthur Au

6. Digital Transformation
under Covid-19
• 75 % of the Organizations are continue their DT
Journey and 65% are accelerating investment
• Unlock the new business models. E.g. Bank
migrating the physical branches to online to
provide service at anytime anywhere
Sources: State of API Economy 2021 Report by Google

7. APIs are Core to a Successful Digital Transformation
58% of executives said
participating in the API
Economy was a top
priority for their
organization
- RapidAPI
56% of IT decision-
makers view APIs as
assets that help
organizations build better
digital experiences and
products
- Google
93% agree that APIs
are relevant and essential
to the functioning of
organizations
- VansonBourne

8. Trend #1 – Internal APIs continue to drive the
API growth
• The percentage of internal APIs (56.96%) increased
compared to last year (52.8%)
• 50% of APIs were designed solely for internal uses, 44%
were designed for both internal and external use, and
6% were exclusively designed for partners or
developers outside the company
Sources: 2020 State of the API Report by Postman
Sources: State of API Economy 2021 Report by Google
56.96%
16.29%
26.75%

9. Trend #2 – Microservices continues to be the
leading technology area in API
• Microservices (65%) and DevOps (44%) are the
top two leading technology areas in API growth
• Research and Markets forecast the global cloud
microservices market will grow at a rate of 22.5%
Sources: The State of API Report 2020 by Smartbear
Technology Drive API Growth in Next 2 Years

10. Trend #2 – Microservices continues to be the
leading technology area in API
• 85% organization using microservices
is currently using service mesh as part
of its microservices management,
with an additional 14% planning to in
the future
Sources: Annual APIs and Integration Report 2021 by VansonBouren

11. Trend #3 – API in Hybrid Environment (On-
premise and Cloud)
• Over 64% of respondents have hybrid
environment
• An increased use in SaaS to administer
workloads (52%) and increase in hybrid
cloud adoption (50%)
Sources: State of API Economy 2021 Report by Google
Sources: Annual APIs and Integration Report 2021 by VansonBouren

12. Trend #3 – API in Hybrid Environment (On-
premise and Cloud)
• A Centralize API management solution for
Hybrid environment is important
• Single Control Plane
• Rapid Deployment Model
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership
• Enjoy the Cloud Benefits and
maintain the security and compliance
for on-premise gateway
• Avoid Cloud vendor lock-in
Clients
On-premise
Applications
and Data
API Management Platform
Self-hosted
Gateway
Cloud
Applications
and Data
Self-hosted
Gateway
Portal Gateway Mgmt Plane

13. Trend #4 – API
Standardization
• 82% of the respondents use OpenAPI/Swagger as
their API standard
• For the use of API technology, majority of
respondents (93.4%) were most familiar with REST
• More than one-third mentioned webhooks and
almost one-quarter mentioned WebSockets, which
may point toward an event-driven future
• GraphQL also has 22.5%
Sources: The State of API Report 2020 by Smartbear
Sources: 2020 State of the API Report by Postman

14. Trend #5 – Event Driven APIs
• The number of developers using AsyncAPIs in
production tripled from 5% in 2019 to 19% in 2020
Sources: Developer Survey 2020 Report by RapidAPI

15. Trend #5 – Event Driven APIs
• In 2021, there are more than 10 billion active IoT
devices and estimate 25.4 billion in 2030
• REST API may not be suitable for all IoT use cases
and Event Driven APIs is more appropriate. For
examples,
• Streaming API: Provide APIs to get live video stream from
IoT devices
• Async API: IoT devices could push the event notification
when an event is triggered

16. Trend #6 – GraphQL
• The number of developers using GraphQL
doubled from 6% in 2019 to 12% in 2020
• Advantages:
• Good fit for complex systems and
microservices.
• Fetching data with a single API call.
• No over- and under-fetching problems.
• Validation and type checking out-of-the-
box

17. Trend #7 – Enhanced API Management
Platform with AI and ML
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are important ways to support their API
management and security capabilities.
Sources: State of API Economy 2021 Report by Google

18. Trend #7 – Enhanced API Management
Platform with AI and ML
API On-boarding
Assist on prepare the
functions and
documentation
Monitoring
Monitor metrics and
take action to auto
scale, restart, other
actions
Data Discovery
Automate the
discovery processes
for large-scale data
analysis
Security
Implement AI-
powered cybersecurity

19. Trend #8 – API security
is the top of mind
• API attacks are increasing at an alarming rate
• Customers have seen monthly API call rates
increase 141% while malicious traffic has grown
348% in the last 6 months
• Ensuring API Security is the top-of-mind challenge
Sources: State of API Security Q3 2021 by Salt Security
Sources: Annual APIs and Integration Report 2021 by
VansonBouren

20. Trend #8 – API security is the top of mind
Change to "Shift left
and protect right"
tactics with a full
lifecycle approach
Use of ML and AI in
API discovery, identify
sensitive data and
detect attacks
Greater collaboration
between Security and
DevOps teams

21. Key Take Away
• Organizations are accelerating their Digital Transformation Program under Covid-19 and
APIs is one of the core elements in their plan
• Traditional API technologies such as Microservices, DevOps, REST and OAS will continue
to drive the growth of APIs
• New API technologies such as Event Driven APIs (EDA), GraphQL, APIM with AI/ML will
bring in new momentum to the API market development
• Finally, API security is paramount to the success of any API initiatives

22. Thank You
Jimmy Tsang
jimmy46tsang@gmail.com