The digital transformation journey started over a decade ago and now nearly every business is a digital business with 93% reporting digital revenue generating activities. For those of us who remember the before times, digital transformation is the slight wonder we experience every time we tap to pay at the local farmer’s market. For all of us, digital transformation is how we operate—we have in fact transformed in to a digital world.
Intuitively we all know that apps play a central role in digital transformation, but the role of APIs is hidden from many of us. APIs are sets of rules and protocols that enable software to communicate, exchanging data and capabilities.
Most modern apps today are in fact a collection of APIs. A couple of years ago, I read a fascinating study concluding that firms that created and leveraged public APIs to create value grew an additional 38% over a 16-year period compared to organizations that didn’t implement public APIs. In short, the use of APIs internally for integration is just the baseline for organizations whereas using APIs for externally facing activities to create business value is where the real transformation takes hold.
When Lori MacVittie and I started the State of Application Strategy Report 11 years ago, we understood application delivery and security services would play a central role in the success of digital transformation initiatives. In this year’s research we found that 92% believe a great digital experience requires performance and security services.
API gateways and security services are vital
As APIs are propelling digital transformation to new heights, API gateways are the engines that deliver the required performance and scale. API gateways are being deployed throughout data centers from the global tier all the way to the Kubernetes clusters—often referred to as “east/west”—and new opportunities for API gateways are emerging between apps and AI models.
Today, the excitement around creating business value through APIs is tempered by the fact that API breaches are a major concern among organizations, especially with API traffic increasing and API breaches becoming more frequent. In this year’s report, we found the API security capabilities that are most valuable are focused on runtime and usually external interactions such as behavioral anomaly detection (46%), scanning for malicious data (43%), and authentication and authorization (33%). AI will further propel API security to the forefront with half of all respondents reporting the need for API security to protect the integrity of their AI/ML models.
Digital transformation: The tailwind to hybrid/multicloud
Digital transformation is also a tailwind driving our hybrid multicloud reality. Digital transformation prioritizes the needs of the app (or API) first because the app is what drives the business. This is evident when we asked respondents what the benefits are of deploying apps in multiple clouds and 90% report the ability to choose the best cloud for the app or AI models. Further cementing hybrid multicloud is AI. Survey respondents expect about one quarter of their AI models in public clouds and another quarter on-premises—meaning no one location will do.
The app drives the business and the business needs dictate where apps are located. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of those surveyed cite at least one business reason for why they are deploying apps in multiple clouds, that has nothing to do with technology. Inherited from a merger or acquisition is a reason often cited as well as dual vendor procurement strategies.
Application delivery and security services ensure apps and APIs are available, performant, and secure regardless of location. They are the silent partners propelling digital transformation success.
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