I hear this quite regularly from folks I talk to about API governance. That their enterprise organization is different. I get that, and it probably is in many ways, but when it comes to interfacing with applications and integrating with external systems-—it helps to not be that different from the industries you operate within. I would even add that you are likely not that different, but you may not have a lot of exposure to how other enterprises work to see the similarities, and just prefer the insulated qualities of what you are used to. APIs are all about tuning into conversations outside your enterprise and striking a balance between what is unique and special about your enterprise, and what the market thinks has value. It is easy to focus on the differences, but maybe you should be starting with the similarities, such as the following.
- HTTP - Everyone is using HTTP as part of their business, and how people use it is the same, and we call this the World Wide Web.
- Authentication - API Keys, JWT, and OAuth are common standards and if you shouldn’t be doing authentication in special ways.
- JSON - The lingua franca for data on the web is JSON, and while it may be spreadsheets internally, interoperability is about JSON.
- Portals - Having a public portal has been commonplace for enterprises for over a decade, making it a wholesale business storefront.
- OpenAPI - The OpenAPI 3.1 specification is used by most enterprises organizations within almost every business sector for Apis.
There are many unique things about your enterprise, but APIs are all about encouraging you to poke your head out of your enterprise and learn a little more about how your customers, partners, and competitors do business. If you want your valuable digital resources available in your partners and customers systems, and you want to outmaneuver and dominate your competition, then focusing on how your enterprise operations are similar to your partners and customers is where you need to be focusing. It makes sense for you to stick with what you know and understand about your organization, but where the hard work is that will pay off in driving new business is how you translate what is unique about your business into common digital resources and capabilities that work well in other enterprise systems.
