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Clouds

The cloud was the third evolutionary shift in the API universe–right after commerce, and social. The cloud has been available via APIs since its inception, so it makes sense that there is a symbiotic relationship between being API-first and being cloud-native. The cloud enables APIs, and APIs enable the cloud. Using the cloud is an essential part of the API life cycle, API governance, and the management of API operations at a global scale.

The cloud provides many benefits, and there are also many paradigm shifts that come when delivering APIs in the cloud. Here are a few of the key elements of cloud-native that you should be thinking about as you invest in your API-first transformation:

Elements

  • Elasticity - Cloud platforms can scale much more easily than traditional data centers, leveraging virtualization and automation to meet the demand of consumers and allowing all types of infrastructure to be elastic and flexible.

  • Concurrency - APIs can be scaled out horizontally across multiple identical processes, as opposed to vertically, scaling-up a single large instance. That provides a more balanced approach for delivering elasticity across your services.

  • Configurations - The standing up and configuration of APIs can be done via APIs, allowing for more automation and repeatability. It’s all part of the elasticity, concurrency, and availability of API services and products, which can always be configured.

  • Disposability - In the cloud, all API infrastructure is disposable. You can stand it up and reconfigure as needed, ensuring that teams can confidently dispose of one or many instances of an API, then quickly return to the desired state if they choose.

  • Costs - Defining, calculating, and managing the costs associated with API infrastructure in the clouds is much simpler and can easily be automated. You can use cloud billing APIs to obtain a tighter grip on what you spend to operate your APIs.

  • Regions - A cloud-native approach allows you to deploy APIs in geographic regions around the world, increasing the reach and performance of your APIs and significantly hastening your API-first transformation.

The cloud provides the elasticity, concurrency, configurability, and disposability you need to efficiently deliver and iterate upon the thousands of APIs you will need to do business in coming years. While there will always be situations where on-premises makes sense, moving to the cloud enables you to meet the needs of the future while simultaneously managing your legacy.

Deploying new infrastructure is not a one-and-done deal. You will need to stand up, tear down, and perpetually iterate and evolve your infrastructure. The place where you will do that is the cloud.