Services, Apps and the API Powered Web

THE WEB IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE INTERNET (AND WHY YOU
MIGHT BE INTERESTED!)
Aka:
SERVICES, APPS AND THE API
POWERED WEB
Steven Willmott / 3scale networks
steve@3scale.net
http://www.3scale.net
@njyx

Agent technology Center, CTU, Prague
Program in Open Informatics
With thanks to
Share & Remix freely:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Web is Dead, Long Live the Internet
Wired Magazine / Aug / 2010

Wired corrected..
Rob Beschizza at BoingBoing
-> Account for Traffic Growth!
Traffic in 1995: 10 Terabytes
Traffic in 2006: 1 Exabyte
Traffic in 2010: 7 Exabytes

But right or wrong:
• The shift really about traffic or Megabytes
• It’s structural:
– Where is the data?
– How does it get to people?
– How do people experience it?
• And this applies to e-Commerce as well as Content

Then & Now
Wired Magazine / Aug / 2010

The Web
Servers host and deliver content / services to browsers to view / manipulate
Web Servers

Apps
Web Servers
iPhones
iPads
Android Devices
Desktop Widgets
Tv’s, Fridges,
Microwaves…
Servers host and deliver
content / services to many
platforms

The Internet in 2015 Will look very different
2 Billion
Users?
7.3BWorld
Population
3B
Internet
Population
800M
Smartphones
23% Computer Sales (USA) are
Tablets
15B
Internet
Connected
Devices
Sources in resources

Mary Meeker / Web 2.0 Summit / Nov 2010 / San Francisco

Implications
Full Page Web Browsing
App Specific Interfaces
Business Model Change

What is eBay?
What is Amazon?
A: They’re not “Web sites” or “Web Portals” – ebay is an auction engine
Amazon is a commerce platform.

In this talk
I. A bit about the what’s happening / trends
and why the matter. The App and the API.
II. Technical / Architectural point of view.
III. “Saving” the Web.

APPS & APIS
APIs power your Apps

What’s really going on with Mobile
Applications?
Web Servers Application
Functions
Features
Graphics
UIData Connection
Application often calls “some
backend somewhere” Calling an API !

Which means what?
Web Servers
Data Connection
Raw Data / Service for your
Application
Can be used by
Many different
Applications

What do these things look like?
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<GeteBayOfficialTimeRequest
xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents”>
<RequesterCredentials>
<eBayAuthToken>TOKENGoesHERE</eBayAuthToken
>
</RequesterCredentials>
</GeteBayOfficialTimeRequest>
XML

What do these things look like?
"images":[
{"src":"img/a/1.jpg", "title":”Photo 1",
"href":"img/a/big/1.jpg", "alt":"Photos
www.example.com"},
{"src":"img/a/2.jpg", "title":”Photo 2",
"href":"img/a/big/2.jpg", "alt":"Photos
www.example.com"},
]}
JSON
Inspired by http://www.outcut.de/MooFlow/example-json.html

RESTfull Web Services
• Resources
• Resource Identifiers (URIs)
• Representations
• Operators
• Response Codes
70-80% of
Web APIs
Are simple
REST-like

Operators
• GET
– Retrieve : return Information about a resources
– List: lists the elements of a collection
• POST
– Create : create new resources
• PUT
– Update : Modify a resource
– Create : Create a new resource
• DELETE
– Remove a known resource
Manipulating
Data
Objects

Response Codes
• 200 OK Standard success response
• 201 Created
• 202 Accepted
• 301 Moved Permanently
• 400 Bad Request
• 401 Unauthorised
• 402 Payment Required
• 403 Forbidden
• 404 Not Found
• 405 Method Not Allowed
Limited Scope
for Response
(but clear)

Evolution of Web Technology
1. Server sends Data, Structure & Styling to the
Browser
2. Server sends Data, Structure (HTML) +Styling
(CSS) to the Browser
e.g. <b><i>Heading 1</i></h>
HTML: <h1>Heading 1</h1> CSS: h1 { …. }

Evolution of Web Technology
1. Server separates Data and structure on the
server before sending in big chunks
1. Start sending small chunks (AJAX)
XSLT Transformation for device specific Content
e.g. Gmail fetches email in the background –
no full page refresh

The Web is becoming Programmable

Anybody can open up their data /
service for reuse

Trends in the API Economy
(which will likely be bigger than the
App Economy)

APIs: The “Dark Traffic” of the Web
3 Billion API Calls / Day, 75% of all traffic (April 2010)
8 Billion API Calls / Month (Q3 2009)
5 Billion API Calls / Day (October 2009)
5 Billion API Calls / Day (April 2010)
3 Billion API Calls / Month (March 2009)
Over 50% of all traffic via API (March 2008)
Over 100 Billion objects stored in S3 (March 2010)

These are “just” the public APIs

API Business
Models
is the product
projects the product
promotes the product
powers and feeds
the product
Direct revenue
Utility / Pay per transaction
Tiered Pricing Bands
Reach more places
Provide more utility
Allow deeper integration
Enable Mobile
Biz Development Lead Gen
User Acquisition
Advertising
Affiliate Programs
Brand promotion
Content Acquisition
Partner tie-in
Internal Innovation

The API IS the product
Core value is tied up in the API
API
API is core value
Ecosystem
Strategy
Direct Customer Usage
Encourage Resellers
Build Tech Knowledge
Encourage 3rd Party Tools
Enable new Services
Build Switching Costs
Others
Amazon AWS
e.g
API >> Websites
Huge Growth
$ If core service sees usage growth

The API Projects the product
Extends availability of functionality to new places
API
Mobile apps / 3rd
Parties / Added Utility
Added to a product
$ If
increasing customer spend (primary)
and numbers (secondary) for core product
Ecosystem
Strategy
Encourage partner ecosystem
Innovation opportunities
Build Tech Knowledge
Encourage 3rd Party Tools
Enable new Services
Build Switching Costs
Salesforce.com
e.g
Thousands of value
add apps
50k + devs
Others

The API Promotes the product
Secondary function and indirect revenue impact
API
Secondary (non core) service
Designed to drive
Leads / traffic
$ If
increasing customer numbers (primary) and
spend (secondary) on core product
Ecosystem
Strategy
Distribute “Teaser” Information
Brand Diffusion
Promote to niches
Improve Partner Impact
Cultivate Partners
Amazon.com
e.g
10’s 1000’s of affiliates
Widgets to
Whole sites powered
Others

The API Powers and Feeds the product
Content acquisition via the API
API
Content, User information,
Ratings, comments
Etc. into the service
$ If
when UGC brings appreciable value to the
central product.
Ecosystem
Strategy
Reach all relevant producers
Facilitate Access
Virtuous circle data in/outTwitter.com
e.g
250,000 Apps
75% of traffic
By API
Others

Programmable Web Stats
Programmable Web May 2010
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/jmusser/pw-glue-conmay2010
May 2010
•2000+ APIs
•4800 Mashups
Nov 2010
•2297 APIs
•5345 Mashups

Infrastructure
& Management
Content
Communication
Processing
Applications
Personal Information
APIAPIAPIAPIAPIAPI
Example APIs by Layer

WEBSCALE MVC
An architectural metaphor to help understand this

MVC Stands for
Model / View / Controller
Highly Successful Architectural
Pattern for Application Development

VIEW = FORM
MODEL = DATA
CONTROLLER = BUSINESS LOGIC
Model
View Controller

MVC = Model / View / Controller
Originally described for
Smalltalk at Xerox Park

MVC has Revolutionized Software Web
App Development

Clear separation between Data,
Presentation & Business Logic

First : MVC Applications
Model
View
Controller
Separate at Design Time
Baked together at Run
Time

Then : MVC SAAS
Model
View
Controller
Separate at Design Time
Baked together at Run
Time
Separate at Deploy Time

But
MVC at “Web Scale” can mean
something much more

Model = Data
• Often most critical asset:
– Wealth of data which has value
– Real time / Reference data
– Sometimes unique / sometimes not
• Often:
– has great value beyond the company that owns it
– AND value beyond the ways the company can
effectively deliver it.

View = Form
• This used to be the “company web site”
• Now it could be your SAAS application
interface
• Increasingly on Android, iPhone, Symbian, …

Controller = Business Logic
• Also know as the “smart stuff”:
– Application logic
– Algorithms
– Secret sauce
– Housekeeping like user management / authentication
/ billing
• Increasingly:
– Some companies allow others to apply smart stuff to
their data
– Some companies apply their smart stuff to the data of
others.

APIs enable Cloud Scale MVC
Model View Controller
Data Anywhere in
any form
Many Delivery
Channels
Third parties
operating on data

Impact on Their Business
• Companies focus on core competence
• Leverage their Ecosystem
• Companies are successful when they:
– Define a clear center of gravity
– Proactively manage the interfaces with other parts
of the value chain

APIs Make this work: Models
An API delivers
you Data in Raw
Form

APIs Make this work: Controllers
APIs Provide
Access to
Smart
Processing

APIs Make this work: Views
APIS feed many
possible ways to
consume Data &
Services

A fourth element – The Framework
– The Internet Operating System
(Normally MVC needs some glue)

Internet Operating System (Tim
O’Reilly)
Search
Media Access
(Auth / Caching / Analytics)
Communications (Email, IM, …)
Identity & Social Graph
Payment
AdvertisingLocation Activity Streams
Time
Image & Speech
Recognition
Government Data
Storage Compute Power Connectivity

Elements of the “Internet Operating
System” already API Driven
C.f. Tim O’Reilly
Search
Media AccessTime
Location
Advertising
Communications
Identify & Social Graph

The Internet Operating System
Emerging
Search
Media Access
(Auth / Caching / Analytics)
Communications (Email, IM, …)
Identity & Social Graph
Payment
AdvertisingLocation Activity Streams
Time
Image & Speech
Recognition
Government Data
Storage Compute Power Connectivity

PRESERVING KEY PROPERTIES OF
THE WEB
These changes have huge potential – but we need to take responsability

Critical we preserve the “linky-ness” of
the Web
(Link to anything from anywhere)

Problem: “Apps” don’t often to easily
allow you to navigate beyond their
boundaries
(there is a risk we’ll loose linkyness)

In Fact: Apps in some cases are re-
creating walled gardens
(hopefully this is a temporary phenomenon)

See Tim Berners Lee’s Article –
Scientific American Nov/22/2010:
The Web also needs defending
Tim Berners Lee / 22nd November 2010 –
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web

Easy to think “The Web is part of
nature – we don’t control it”

Not True! - We control it’s properties
– we have responsibility for its
evolution

To help keep the web moving forward
Standardisation will have a huge impact
Keeping APIs Easy to Use & Apps easy to
build across platforms will be a key
challenge
HTML5 and APIS / APPs need to blend
well overtime

The Web / Internet is rapidly becoming
an open programmable computing
system

Web Page Browsing will decline &
Apps / APIs become the norm

Is the Web Dead?
• Depends on your definition!
• If you take the web as an information
application running over the Internet – then it
most definitely isn’t – it’s evolving very very
fast.

The next 5 years will see dramatic
changes in the structure of the Web &
Internet

The shift from Web Pages to
Apps+APIs is at the core of this
change

Thank You & Have Fun!
Steven Willmott / 3scale networks
Find 3scale at http://www.3scale.net
Find me at steve@3scale.net & @njyx

http://www.3scale.net/
Out of the box management infrastructure to power your API & App Strategy

Resources
• http://www.programmableweb.com
• http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/open-apis-reach-new-high-water-
mark-as-the-web-evolves/215
• http://www.sexywidget.com/my_weblog/2008/11/api-business-mo.html
• http://www.3scale.net/wp-content/uploads/api_ecommerce.pdf
• http://www.3scale.net/wp-content/uploads/api_media_companies.pdf
• http://www.slideshare.net/sanjayjhawar/apis-20-presentation-at-the-
telco-20-conference-in-orlando-11-december-2009

Resources
• http://www.slideshare.net/fedecarg/open-platforms-and-apis
• http://www.slideshare.net/openplatform/op-commerciallaunchv2
• http://www.slideshare.net/samramji/darwins-finches-20th-century-
business-and-apis
• http://www.slideshare.net/jmusser/pw-glue-conmay2010
• http://www.slideshare.net/3scale/apis-the-glue-of-cloud-computing
• http://www.slideshare.net/Mashery/the-business-of-apis-2009-
programmablewebcom

Resources
• Facebook number of active users: Sept 2009: 300mil, Feb 2010:
400mil, June 2010: 500mil. The 2B figure on slide 10 is an
(potentially aggressive) estimate but illustrates that the largest
internet companies are bumping up against the limits of the online
population and not far of the whole population
• http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/sep/03/slide-show-1-
tech-internet-users-in-2015-top-7-nations.htm
http://www.digitalfamily.com/mobilewebdesign/2009/08/smartph
ones-will-overtake-computers-in-2011/
http://www.electronics.ca/presscenter/articles/1247/1/Global-
Smartphones-Market-to-Reach-80442-Million-Units-by-
2015/Page1.html
• http://www.forrester.com/ER/Press/Release/0,1769,1340,00.html
• http://www.sys-con.com/node/1317657

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