When it comes to developing, deploying, and maintaining a truly powerful application, performance needs to be a top priority.
But that performance isn't only limited to the software your team builds and maintains. Moreover, the performance of an application depends on the performance of the APIs that power it.
SmartBear Software recently released the results of a global API survey, which includes responses from more than 2,300 software professionals in over 50 industries, across 104 countries around the globe.
The report included input from both API providers — organizations that develop and deploy APIs — and API consumers — organizations that use APIs to power their applications or internal systems.
When Asked: Why Do You Consume/Use APIs?
■ 50% said they use APIs to provide interoperation between internal systems, tools, and teams
■ 49% said they use APIs to extend functionality in a product or service
■ 42% said they use APIs to reduce development time
■ 38% said they used APIs to reduce development cost
It's clear to understand the impact that poor API performance could have on any of these use cases. Which is why it's not surprising that, when asked about how they would react upon encountering an API quality or performance issue, one-third of consumers said they would consider permanently switching API providers.
Whether you work in an organization that develops APIs, or have tools and systems that depend on APIs — performance should matter to you.
How Can You Ensure API Performance?
Just like you use tools to test and monitor your application, you also need to invest in the right tools for testing and monitoring your API. Whether you're launching an API of your own, or are concerned about the third party APIs that power your applications, you need to understand how your APIs are performing. You also need to understand the capacity of these APIs so that you can determine the amount of volume your applications can handle and adjust as necessary.
In most cases, ensuring API performance begins with load testing your API to ensure that it functions properly in real-world situations.
By utilizing specialized testing software, load testing allows testers to answer questions like:
"Is my system doing what I expect under these conditions?"
"How will my application respond when a failure occurs?"
"Is my application's performance good enough?"
But if you're performance strategy ends there, you could still be at risk of costly performance problems. This is where monitoring comes in.
API monitoring allows you to determine how your APIs are performing and compare those results to the performance expectations set for your application. Monitoring will enable you to collect insights that can then be incorporated back into the process. Once you've created your monitors and established your acceptable thresholds, you can set up alerts to be notified if performance degrades or the API goes offline.
Monitoring is Critical for Identifying and Resolving API Performance Issues
One of the key findings from the State of API 2016 Report is that a majority of API providers still face setbacks when it comes to resolving API performance issues.
Less than 10% of API issues are resolved within 24 hours. Nearly 1-in-4 API quality issues (23.9%) will remain unresolved for one week or more.
The biggest barrier to resolving API quality issues is determining the root cause (45.2%), followed by isolating the API as being the cause of the issue (29%).
A premium synthetic monitoring tool enables you to monitor your internal or 3rd party APIs proactively, from within your private network or from across the globe. A monitoring tool will help you find API and application issues, engage experts in a timely manner and fix issues before they impact your end users. If you are using external 3rd party APIs for your mission critical applications, a tool can help you monitor SLAs and hold your vendors accountable in case of unavailability or performance degradations.
Priyanka Tiwari is Product Marketing Manager, AlertSite, SmartBear Software.
The Latest
While most companies are now deploying cloud-based technologies, the 2024 Secure Cloud Networking Field Report from Aviatrix found that there is a silent struggle to maximize value from those investments. Many of the challenges organizations have faced over the past several years have evolved, but continue today ...
In our latest research, Cisco's The App Attention Index 2023: Beware the Application Generation, 62% of consumers report their expectations for digital experiences are far higher than they were two years ago, and 64% state they are less forgiving of poor digital services than they were just 12 months ago ...
In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 5, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses the network source of truth ...
A vast majority (89%) of organizations have rapidly expanded their technology in the past few years and three quarters (76%) say it's brought with it increased "chaos" that they have to manage, according to Situation Report 2024: Managing Technology Chaos from Software AG ...
In 2024 the number one challenge facing IT teams is a lack of skilled workers, and many are turning to automation as an answer, according to IT Trends: 2024 Industry Report ...
Organizations are continuing to embrace multicloud environments and cloud-native architectures to enable rapid transformation and deliver secure innovation. However, despite the speed, scale, and agility enabled by these modern cloud ecosystems, organizations are struggling to manage the explosion of data they create, according to The state of observability 2024: Overcoming complexity through AI-driven analytics and automation strategies, a report from Dynatrace ...
Organizations recognize the value of observability, but only 10% of them are actually practicing full observability of their applications and infrastructure. This is among the key findings from the recently completed Logz.io 2024 Observability Pulse Survey and Report ...
Businesses must adopt a comprehensive Internet Performance Monitoring (IPM) strategy, says Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading IT analyst research firm. This strategy is crucial to bridge the significant observability gap within today's complex IT infrastructures. The recommendation is particularly timely, given that 99% of enterprises are expanding their use of the Internet as a primary connectivity conduit while facing challenges due to the inefficiency of multiple, disjointed monitoring tools, according to Modern Enterprises Must Boost Observability with Internet Performance Monitoring, a new report from EMA and Catchpoint ...
Choosing the right approach is critical with cloud monitoring in hybrid environments. Otherwise, you may drive up costs with features you don’t need and risk diminishing the visibility of your on-premises IT ...
Consumers ranked the marketing strategies and missteps that most significantly impact brand trust, which 73% say is their biggest motivator to share first-party data, according to The Rules of the Marketing Game, a 2023 report from Pantheon ...
