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My Focus On Public APIs Also Applies Internally

A regular thing I hear from folks when we are having conversations about the API lifecycle, is that I focus on public APIs, and they are more interested in private APIs. Each time I hear this I try to take time and assess which parts of my public API research wouldn’t apply to internal APIs. You wouldn’t publish your APIs to pubic API search engines like APIs.io or ProgrammableWeb, and maybe not evangelizing your APIs at hackathons, but I’d say 90% of what I study is applicable to internal APIs, as well as publicly available APIs.

With internal APIs, or private network partner APIs you still need a portal, documentation, SDKs, support mechanisms, and communication and feedback loops. Sure, how you use the common building blocks of API operations that I track on will vary between private and public APIs, but this shifts from industry to industry, and API to API as well–it isn’t just a public vs. private thing. I would say that 75% of my API industry research is derived from public API operations–it is just easier to access, and honestly more interesting to cover than private ones. The other 25% of internal API conversation I’m having, always benefit from thinking through the common API building blocks of public APIs, looking for ways they can be more successful with internal and partner APIs.

I’d say that a significant part of the mindshare for the microservices philosophy is internally focused. I think this is something that will come back to hurt some implementations, cutting out many of the mechanisms and common elements required in a successful API formula. Things like portals, documentations, SDKs, testing, monitoring, discovery, support, communications all contribute to an API working, or not working. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m not convinced that there is any true separation in public vs private APIs, and there remains to be a great deal we can learn from public API providers, and put to work across internal operations, and with our most trusted partners.