API-driven App Development on the Hybrid Cloud · involving assets like IBM Bluemix, Softlayer,...

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API-driven App Development on the Hybrid Cloud

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provide new ways to interact with services and products. To marketers and their development team, the complexity of data is someone else’s problem; they wish only to combine the most useful information as possible into apps and make, say, banking customers enjoy deep, fulfilling experiences when managing accounts on their mobile phones. The traditional ways to deliver that data are joined by methods oriented on cloud platforms that require data to fully serve business goals. These methods, immensely powerful, can nonetheless distract companies and overburden staff and misuse resources.

The hybrid cloud concept is ideal for this sort of data-reliant app development—a service drawing from on-premise, private and public cloud resources to support efforts in the same organization. An API-oriented data delivery model, though, established in the hybrid cloud and involving assets like IBM Bluemix, Softlayer, DataPower, and Akana’s API management suite can achieve the data-enriched apps that make consumers take notice of a business, engage with its services, and become loyal customers.

IntroductionOn-premise IT owners know everything about the data their businesses have been collecting for decades. They also own this data—20, 30 years’ worth of enterprise data from systems of record and systems of engagement, data about transactions and account information, structured and unstructured. With cloud an increasingly prominent technology and app design an area of major competitive significance in more and more industries, these wise, experienced leaders may not be sure how to purpose this data to accommodate the economy’s pivot toward digital customer engagement. This pivot, a point of kinetic commercial potential—where a company can often struggle—is vital to successful, modernized marketing and business development strategies.

It is crucial for IT owners to deliver data and process management with efficiency and security, as chief marketing officers aim to reach their customers using mobile apps that

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No doubt, public cloud systems are appealing to companies. IBM Bluemix and Softlayer are powerful app development and hosting platforms. The trend, though, is toward amalgamations of public, private, and on-premise resources. Indeed, much of the data that is critical to how an enterprise interacts with consumers rests in on-premise or private cloud locations. 63% of respondents to a RightScale survey use private cloud. Yet over decades, businesses throughout every industry have been investing in enterprise systems and infrastructure. These assets, from CRM systems to business intelligence portfolios, remain viable elements of the world economy’s use of technology.

In fact, some data may never live in the cloud. The public cloud will continue to raise security concerns. Migration of data is expensive and imperfect. Hybrid cloud has become the ascendant form of cloud engagement throughout the modern economy. The RightScale survey tracked nearly 85% hybrid usage among respondents. Infonetics Research estimates that in 2015, the number of companies engaged in hybrid cloud postures will double from the previous year. A driver of this excitement over hybrid cloud is the enablement of dynamic, customer-facing apps that business leaders can implement in their quest to address markets in ways unlike any other marketing and service method has done before.

The evolving, worldwide engagement with hybrid cloud implementations means businesses must understand how such implementations can meet the needs of enterprise customers through the potential and context of hybrid cloud postures. To overlook the ideal way to develop apps—to hurry into the process without an API-driven model—is to lose vast efficiencies in internal operations and to fail to maximize every digital interaction with external customers.

On-premise: The past and future of data locationBy the numbers, the age of customers appreciating data-rich apps is well underway. Some of our most routine and urgent obligations involve apps: bank websites that allow customers to check balances and make payments, health websites that aid patients to make an appointment with a physician, or airline websites that let travelers make a reservation. Over 50% of consumers polled in 2015 by Zogby Analytics used apps for personal banking, shopping, or social media. These transactions turn on a foundation of data, relevant and dynamic, that must be positioned close to the development process.

This data positioning is a central part of app development and represents a question for modern companies: where does relevant data exist? Cloud seems ever-present in the IT culture’s discussion of data management; Juniper Research predicts that by 2018, 3.6 billion consumers around the world will be using cloud storage. Yet as the cloud would seem a progressively likely location for much of the world’s data, more companies are expanding their datacenter capacities. Nearly 90% of North American and European datacenter operators surveyed by 451 Research claimed they were maintaining or increasing their datacenter facility spending over just one quarter of 2015.

These seemingly contradictory statistics—cloud engagements rising, yet on-premise holding strong—illuminate a global reality for businesses: though cloud stores more and more data, the majority of details of decades of transactions and account information rest and will continue to rest on-premise, along with the adjacent metadata. This consideration applies most suitably to systems of engagement, which companies must master in the race to interact with customers on mobile-borne technology.

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Data migration or data replication?Data migration is a notoriously troublesome practice. The dizzying considerations facing a company that undertakes a migration project range from technical risks to concerns over personnel morale. As IBM examined in a telling whitepaper, a development team must address a stream of questions. Will migrated data be compatible with recipient software and data stores? Does staff have the experience and time to manage the project front to back? How can planners predict that the migration will allow the company to meet or exceed its performance aims?

There are no easy fixes, and struggle is common. In 2015, Experian Data Quality research found that 90% of surveyed businesses engage in data migration projects; roughly 85% of them run into a significant problem during the process. A 2013 study by Bloor Research measured the failure rate for data migration projects at nearly 40%.

To address and utilize its data rather than complicate operations, an organization must engage a way to exploit existing data that already rests on-premise. Direct interactive access is the best and sole approach. An API-oriented development method, which uses APIs to grant data access to participants, is an ideal way to realize this direct interactivity.

Yet the chain of technology in the development cycle must include components to connect a new app, sourced from IBM Bluemix, to on-premise networks. The complexity of an on-premise network can leave data hidden behind a shroud of ESBs, application servers, mainframes, third-party packages, and databases. App developers, empowered as they might be by Softlayer, will quickly stumble, unsure of where relevant data lies and how to mesh it into apps that stand out in the marketplace.

The issue facing app developers is easy to understand. A public cloud-based infrastructure does require access to data, just like any other application infrastructure. There is, however, a data location problem. In the cloud, users enjoy new capabilities in this new application infrastructure in several aspects, most notably in how they write new applications, but the cloud doesn’t hold all the data.

The challenge is how to position that data as accessible—make it feel local and close—so the application developers can write applications that serve the objectives of the organization. Importantly, the app development workflow must prioritize control, security, and scalability throughout the process.

An API-driven app development method furnishes developers with a portfolio of APIs that exposes ranks of enterprise data. It permits the development of imaginative mobile apps that turn marketing into a more rewarding effort, build loyalty, and grow a buzz around the business. Such a method capitalizes on the strengths of Bluemix and Softlayer and broadens an organization’s digital reach.

More importantly, a hybrid cloud API-driven model supports every actor in the development experience satisfied. These actors include the app developer, who must design customer-facing apps that, in a competitive landscape, elevate the digital experience of consumers, an important strategic aim for a second actor, the CMO. The enterprise developer manages the data and technologies that the app developer will need to use for app design workflow. The CIO needs to ensure that the company’s overall technological capability and operation serves the business and remains compliant and secure. An API-driven model leaves the app developer empowered; the enterprise developer able to satisfy internal customers; the CMO equipped with the data he needs to drive the business; and the CIO better able to safeguard the company in disrupted times. It must begin, though, with a consideration of a core question that faces any organization taken by the need to get data close to the development process.

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Hybrid cloud and the API-driven modelThe allure of mobile-borne customer interactions can lead businesses into an ad hoc approach when exposing and utilizing enterprise data. Such provisional workflows are quite common and ultimately hinder a business, despite the best intentions and hard work of team members. Say a chief marketing officer at a financial firm envisions a latticework of services that entice and satisfy customers. Such apps would provide deep, enriching information to clients—the personalized account transactions and targeted product messaging that draw from the enterprise data stored on-premises. The CMO turns to the app developer to create the branches and touchpoints of this digital reach—apps that grant the customer account access, approvals, prospectuses, and more.

Yet the developer, set to use Bluemix and Softlayer and the latest mobile technologies, quickly treads a path of frustration and inefficiency. The perfection of the CMO’s image is lost in the reality of ad hoc development.

Turning to the enterprise developer, the app developer aims to utilize the business’s data resting in databases, enterprise programs, and middleware resources. The app developer doesn’t know where the relevant data resides, or even how to articulate what she wants. The enterprise developer accommodates her requests despite being unaware of access and usage standards. It isn’t his job to serve such requests. The app developer doesn’t know how to leverage the technology she is suddenly able to access and use.

By locating and delivering data for utilization, APIs serve a critical role in of hybrid cloud development. They liberate developers, enterprise architects, and IT leaders. Bluemix developers can leverage APIs to spend more time on systems of engagement—the apps worth caring about—and enterprise architects and IT managers can spend more time improving and standardizing their infrastructure. Less time is spent managing ad-hoc requests from the app developer for enterprise data, requests that severely weaken the security, scalability, and manageability of the business’s enterprise resources.

With the growing variety of data sources and storage locations, APIs have become key components for businesses to achieve compatibility between disparate data formats. This compatibility is a cornerstone of a competitive digital reach. Driven by the market appetites for newer, more intriguing app designs, companies that are able to form APIs with built-in security and orchestration capabilities have grasped the interaction of disparate data throughout their IT landscapes. This interaction enables a fuller experience for the customer—they check balances and see account history and loan options as well. Such companies—especially ones delivering these apps fastest—are leaving positive impressions on their customers. Development that uses APIs will give IT a more open, agile, faster and cheaper way to engage in a services and cloud application delivery environment.

Prioritizing rich customer experiences, any company would be compelled by a development methodology that meshes disparate data—without the pains of migrations—and preserves the security, scalability, and manageability of enterprise resources. Yet businesses can fail to gain these benefits by developing apps in approaches that burden staff, erode morale, and fail to serve objectives.

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Model 1: Ad-Hoc Hybrid Cloud

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don’t know exactly what data is needed. The CMO’s vision is frustrated by apps that don’t provide the enriched experience—an enrichment that is only borne of compelling data—for both existing customers and new ones.

These tactical-level obstructions are paralleled by headaches at the executive level. The CIO’s aim is to guide a compliant, efficient practice. Yet his staffer, the enterprise developer, is burdened by the requests for data and access. A complete usage of the proper data is impossible when the app and enterprise developers


Model 2: Bespoke Hybrid Cloud

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An API-based development model, driven by Akana’s technology suite of portal, security, and management resources, provides the data access and oversight that makes app development sustainable. Through these resources, the enterprise developer can publish all relevant data, even data stored in on-premise resources, and grant colleagues the API browsing capabilities to locate the data they require for app development. Assets like IBM Bluemix and DataPower are leveraged, permitting the team access to the most modern and innovative technologies available. Compliance and monitoring is assisted through Akana’s developer portal. The team is uplifted: the app developer is left empowered; the enterprise developer succeeds as a helpful leader of the project; the CIO is assured that the process is secure and efficient; the CMO feels the company is energized in its digital interactions with customers.

A second approach to app development that is evident in several organizations is a bespoke model. This model begins with a belief among executives that communication between relevant parties can identify the resources needed for suitable app development. The CIO and CMO gather and assess the project needs, including the app developer’s requirements, timelines, and hopes for data access. Perhaps the project has a formalized communication plan and leader, often the enterprise developer. Knowing what data is necessary for the app developer’s purposes, the enterprise developer can deliver, with preparation and time, the material the app developer will incorporate into substantial apps. The group can make use of assets like Bluemix and allow the app developer to utilize custom technology to get at the data.

This approach does have shortcomings. The enterprise developer is overworked with two jobs—managing the secure exposure of enterprise data and their regular role of enterprise systems management. The CIO likely must divert funds to the effort from core budgets. The CMO, while pleased that his digital vision is being realized to an extent, knows that such a cannibalizing method is not sustainable for the company’s long-term aims.

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Model 3: API-Driven Hybrid Cloud

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An example of this method in practice began when Akana implemented an API-drive approach with a large supermarket chain in the US. The client wanted to create and deliver mobile apps for customers. These apps would permit consumers to check coupons and access gas rewards. The client intended to deploy to cloud an API-driven mobile app on the iPhone.

With Akana, the client could achieve a fully-defined set of APIs to drive the data needed by the mobile functionality that would make the customer experience distinct in a tight market. True to the theme of data location that is so apparent in modern IT, some of the necessary data was on-premise. Akana collaborated on the client’s mobile platform to allow them to determine all relevant APIs. Working with the Akana solution, the client was able to define all APIs, be they on-premise or in cloud or one of their partner or third-party APIs.

Every team member had clear, secure access to APIs, which were published to the Akana solution set. Staff could browse and search APIs, ensuring that data usage and location was evident to anyone with questions or plans about how to augment apps with enterprise data. Akana created an environment where app developers wouldn’t get bogged down in the complexities of the backend, complex systems.

The functionalities of the API model, when incorporating assets like Bluemix, DataPower, and Akana’s developer portal, are extensive for companies designing apps to provide end users with rich, data-shaped experiences. Capabilities include:

• Data publishing: IT can make on-premise and data center resources available in API format

• Browsing: Users can utilize dashboarding to review and select on-premise enterprise data through APIs

• Monitoring: IT can review how apps are drawing data through IBM DataPower

• Compliance: Management can view requirements and adherence to regulatory obligations

• Auditing: IT can define details of audit and review API connectivity to middleware and enterprise resources

• Define and manage APIs: Developers can build APIs with multiple interfaces using different standards including REST/XML, REST/JSON and SOAP

• Manage app to API connections: IT can automate and control the connections between Apps and APIs

With an API-driven approach, enterprises enjoy a level of diversity in their app approach that only begins with cloud integration. They can bring in cloud resources and prepare sophisticated features for DataPower and on-premise-enhanced apps. The Akana developer portal capability provides users with documentation, legal forms, monitoring, and security information. Enterprise developers can orchestrate for operations related to particular self-service items.

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Hybrid Cloud: Bluemix, DataPower, APIs

SummaryThe choice to implement a hybrid cloud infrastructure simplifies access to enterprise data. Companies should not be hesitant to make the most of this remarkable moment in digital business. Leaders should prepare to put the API infrastructure in place at once to satisfy the needs of internal app and enterprise cloud developers. This method will stand for years as on-premise assets remain part of IT departments throughout the world of commerce.

The work involved is less disruptive and more feasible than forcing data migration methods. Internal stakeholders will benefit; more assured compliance, risk management, operational efficiency, and execution are all attainable. Most importantly, the business will stay competitive in the digital, mobile app-driven area of customer engagement that is defining every market, from healthcare and government to finance and retail.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this document is provided “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY . Akana may make changes to this document at any time without notice. All comparisons, functionalities and measures as related to similar products and services offered by other vendors are based on Akana’s internal assessment and/or publicly available information of Akana and other vendor product features, unless otherwise specifically stated. Reliance by you on these assessments / comparative assessments are to be made solely on your own discretion and at your own risk. The content of this document may be out of date, and Akana makes no commitment to update this content. This document may refer to products, programs or services that are not available in your country. Consult your local Akana business contact for information regarding the products, programs and services that may be available to you. Applicable law may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you.


About Akana Akana is a leading provider of API Security and Management products that help businesses plan, build, run and share APIs, through comprehensive cloud and on-premise solutions that encompass API lifecycle, security, management and developer engagement. The world’s largest companies including Bank of America, Pfizer, and Verizon use Akana solutions to transform their business.

For more information, please visit www.akana.com

Akana, API Gateway, Community Manager, Lifecycle Manager, Policy Manager, Portfolio Manager, Repository Manager, Service Manager, and SOLA are trademarks of Akana, Inc. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their registered owners.

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API-driven App Development on the Hybrid Cloud · involving assets like IBM Bluemix, Softlayer,...

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