Sharing information and services with your partners is vital to your business. With the complexities of businesses' systems and the security of firewalls, this exchange isn't always easy.
Defining what resources you should make available to partners and actually making them available can be a costly and time-intensive endeavor.
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Establishing a definition of what you want to make available to partners can be easily translated into a plan for what services you will offer through your
API.
Using API standards such as
REST and providing API responses in common protocols like
XML and
JSON, will make it possible for partners to easily work with your
APIs, and increase the likelihood that they incorporate into their business operations.
You rely on your relationships with your partners to make your business thrive, and often showcase these relationships to the public to emphasize the the strength of your business. Your
API Strategy can take this even further.
Your partners often will be the number one reason for launching an API, and the number of partners and quality of your partners will contribute to the image your API has with the public and within your developer community.
The success of your partnerships via your API can be the difference between simply having an API and having a thriving
API ecosystem.