Just a few years ago, mobile devices posed significant challenges for enterprises. Questions arose like which devices to adopt, how to secure business resources, and how to support complex employee, enterprise, and customer needs. In many cases, it took years for businesses to resolve these outstanding integration issues.
For the most part, large enterprises today now have some form of mobile strategy in place, both to provision devices within the organization and to undertake external initiatives like developing customer-facing mobile applications. But just as enterprises begin to feel that they are getting the hang of mobile, many realize that success in a mobile-first world is more complicated than it first appears.
Mobile is now mission-critical to business success, and this means not just giving employees access to the tools they need to perform their jobs, but also externalizing the enterprise to a mobile audience. Both these outcomes depend on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which enable the secure and governable exposure and re-use of enterprise data and application functionality.
APIs speed mobile development time and allow enterprises to share data with third parties to integrate additional functionality into their applications. This includes capabilities such as embedding live maps and navigation features into apps, or accessing backend booking or retail systems to complete secure transactions without leaving the app ? to name just a few examples.
APIs Connect the IoT Dots
Developing, managing, and securing APIs is no easy task, especially when enterprises may have hundreds or even thousands of active APIs to support. But while enterprises are still wrestling with these challenges, the conversation has shifted seemingly overnight to the next big technology paradigm: the Internet of Things (IoT).
There is no doubt that IoT will transform industries and societies; in fact, it already is. But a successful IoT strategy cannot be built without a successful mobile strategy ? and, more granular than that, a successful API strategy ? in play. Secure, governed APIs are the first step and the building blocks of IoT.
An October 2017 Forrester report included a survey of global enterprises that identified accelerating their digital businesses as a high or critical priority for the next 12 months. In this report, 53 percent of surveyed enterprises are currently exposing APIs outside the organization, and 55 percent are currently exposing APIs internally. This means that nearly half of those enterprises undergoing digital transformation do not yet have an API strategy in place. So why has the tech conversation seemed to jump straight from mobile to IoT, without recognizing the crucial role that APIs play in this transition?
Get Smart on APIs
For businesses navigating this increasingly complex world, CA has put together a new eBook that will help you develop mobile API strategies that scale for IoT:
How APIs Fast-Track IoT Opportunities Across Industries
In this eBook, we outline how enterprises can use APIs to fuel IoT opportunities in Healthcare, Automotive, Travel and Transportation, Retail and Hospitality, Utilities, Smart Cities, and National Security.
Together, these industry-led innovations converge to create smart cities fueled by APIs and networked technologies. View our new infographic to see how a day-in-the-life for an average citizen will change, and how your business fits into the smart city opportunity:
Mapping the Smart City of the Future with APIs and IoT
Check back in next month as we continue to explore the intersection of mobile and IoT through a monthly blog series, and read my latest IoT blog here.
