Cloud-Based APIs And The Future Of Business Applications

Eugene Xiong is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Foxit, a leading provider of innovative PDF products and services.

The way software is developed and functions has changed dramatically in recent years. For example, we’ve moved away from linear software development to more agile methodologies that segment projects into smaller components that can be developed simultaneously. We’ve also moved away, in many cases, from on-premises applications to the cloud, making those applications available to more people more cost-effectively than ever.

Perhaps one of the biggest advancements of recent years, which builds on changes in agile development practices and cloud computing, has been the increasing popularity and use of APIs, or application programming interfaces, to access other applications, reusable software functions and microservices. Using APIs, developers can integrate data and functionality into their applications and web services to quickly deliver new features and capabilities without the need for ground-up code development.

Taking a look at the big picture, APIs allow different applications to communicate with one another seamlessly using a defined set of commands. Our everyday lives are replete with examples of APIs at work. Digital experiences like accessing Google maps from a restaurant website, using the PayPal payment option on an e-commerce site or getting a weather forecast on your smartphone — these are all examples of APIs that enable access to another application’s data or functionality. APIs are also used in music, news, gaming and a slew of other online applications.

APIs also allow developers in a wide range of industries and application types to stitch together various pre-built features and complex functions into whatever they’re building without having to create those features and functions themselves.

As the chairman of a global software company that works closely with application developers around the world, I’ve seen the growing appetite for and advantages of cloud-based APIs that give software teams access to cloud computing services to accelerate the release of new applications and features and improve the performance of their products.

There are numerous advantages to using APIs for software development. Perhaps chief among them is the ability to move away from creating massive on-premises software and instead build microservices-based applications in the cloud. They take the agile development approach one step further — not only allowing software teams to segment assignments and work in parallel but to use pre-built software components as a key part of that process.

When working with a software partner that provides cloud APIs, third-party developers are saved much of the heavy lifting when it comes to computing and maintaining the platform. The right cloud-based APIs eliminate the need for numerous time-intensive tasks like establishing and maintaining multiple integrated development environments and dependencies, third-party application support and excessive debugging. They can reduce the number of developers and testers needed to work specifically on a cloud application and give the team flexibility to focus on more complex or time-consuming parts of the project.

Not only do they remove the need to write, test and maintain complex code, cloud APIs also eliminate the cost and headaches of purchasing and maintaining expensive servers for data storage and running the application. It is even possible for users without development expertise to use the APIs in their website building tools like Wix and WordPress, as well as cloud-based applications such as Microsoft Teams.

To successfully incorporate API-based functionality into your development, it’s important to have a good understanding of web development and software frameworks on your team. This can help ensure your solution performs well and has low maintenance costs. Roadblocks usually lie in your own legacy or desktop-only software, which you might need to adapt to an API-based scenario. Choosing vendors that can cater to both desktop and cloud is a good way to migrate to cloud-based APIs while maintaining your solutions. Team leaders should do their research on what their COGS (cost of goods sold) will look like with cloud-based APIs. Usage-based subscriptions avoid scope creep and headaches along the way.

Well-built cloud APIs are developed to be simple and flexible to avoid overcrowding an application with excessive requests or large payloads sent back and forth. If a company already uses web-based services, there is no need for changes to get the APIs to perform well. If not, a developer should work with a vendor that provides the professional services to move you into the cloud.

Vendors offering cloud APIs should also provide compliance with security standards and maintain cloud security industry practices, as well as strong customer and technical support to quickly address any challenges raised by a company’s IT team.

One of the main reasons to use cloud-based APIs is that they make life easier for developers while providing the capacity to scale easily. That, of course, becomes clear to the end user as well. They allow new applications to be as simple as possible, with everything provided in the platform, standardized for the cloud and integrated with all relevant systems, without the need for specific lingo or technical setup for the end user.

Cloud APIs are now essential building blocks for developing applications in the cloud using today’s agile development practices. They enable companies and developers to bring innovative applications and functionality to end users at the speed of today’s businesses.

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