Many of the highest traffic sites get more than half of their traffic not through the browser but through the APIs they have created. Salesforce.com (more than 50%) and Twitter (more than 75% fall into this category. Ebay gets more than 8 billion API calls a month. Facebook and Google, have dozens of APIs that enable both free services and e-commerce, get more than 5 billion API calls each day. Other companies like NetFlix have expanded their service of streaming movies over the the web to dozens of devices using API. At peak times, more than 20 percent of all traffic is accounted for by Netflix through its APIs. Companies like Sears and E-Trade are opening up their catalogs and other services to allow developers and entrepreneurs to create new marketing experiences. Making an API work to create a new channel is not just a matter of technology. An API must be considered in terms of business strategy, marketing, and operations as well as the technical aspects of programming. This book, written by Greg Brail, CTO of Apigee, and Brian Mulloy, VP of Products, captures the knowledge of all these areas gained by Apigee, the leading company in supporting the rollout of high traffic APIs.
Author Biography:
Daniel Jacobson is the director of API engineering at Netflix. Prior to Netflix, Daniel was at NPR where he created the NPR API as well as the content management system that drives NPR .org, mobile platforms and all other digital presentations for NPR content. Daniel is also on the board of directors for OpenID. Gregory Brail brings a variety of experience to Apigee from more than 18 years in the industry. Prior to Apigee, Greg worked at BEA as technical lead for the WebLogic JMS team, and kicked off BEA's "Core Engine" initiative, which built a modular "micro-kernel" using core WebLogic technology. Prior to BEA, Greg served as Principal Architect for TransactPlus, a LabMorgan spinoff that offered guaranteed message delivery over the Internet. Greg began his career developing custom middleware libraries for Citibank, and then spent his formative years with transaction-processing pioneers Transarc, where he worked in the field, deploying production systems using Transarc technology at JPMorgan and elsewhere. Greg holds a degree in Computer Science from Brown University. Dan Woods is a seasoned CTO, author, speaker, and entrepreneur with experience in business, computer science, journalism, and publishing. He is CTO and Editor of CITO Research, a firm dedicated to creating content to improve the performance of CIO and CTOs. As an author, Dan has written or coauthored more than 20 books about business and technology, ranging from books about service-oriented architecture, open source, manufacturing, RFID, and wikis to the ideas driving the latest generation of enterprise applications, particularly in the face of Web 2.0's impact on the enterprise. Dan has written hundreds of white papers and conducted more than 1,000 interviews with experts in a variety of fields. He is also an invited speaker and moderator at international conferences. As a CTO, Dan built technology for companies ranging from Time Inc. New Media to TheStreet.com. He has managed the product development cycle from initial requirements through sales for web sites and software products designed for the publishing and financial services industries. At TheStreet.com his systems supported the company's successful IPO and handled millions of daily page views while the number of subscribers tripled and new lines of business were launched. At CapitalThinking, Dan's software was purchased by the IT departments of large financial institutions including General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, and Citigroup. Dan has an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. Since July 2008, Dan has been writing the JargonSpy column for Forbes. For a complete list of those articles, visit our sister site, CITO Research, here or Forbes.com.
