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Understanding Cloud Services APIs
Cloud computing is everywhere. From mom and pop neighborhood shops to billion-dollar enterprises, everyone has jumped on the cloud bandwagon. Cloud computing empowers enterprises with efficiency and agility so enterprises can exercise more control and gain visibility in their day to day business processes and operations. From managing a data center and publishing and managing source code to maintaining six sigma benchmarks, cloud computing, builds a compelling use case for everyone in the IT ecosystem.
As cloud computing continues to gather more momentum, developers and system administrators are discovering newer ways to integrate their existing technology infrastructure and platforms with the cloud. In the quest to enhance the overall cloud experience, cloud services APIs have enabled developers to seamlessly work with cross-cloud platforms as well as maintain compatibility with other resources.
There are multiple ways to integrate cloud services API with existing IT infrastructure, with each methodology presenting its own, unique set of features. There are four major areas where cloud services APIs help in communicating with existing resources. They are:
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) APIs – These APIs provide integration with database management systems, messaging systems, storage infrastructure, web portals, etc.
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – These APIs help in connecting with the application layer and the underlying infrastructure, like large and medium scale CRM and ERP services.
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) – These APIs manage cloud resources and provision infrastructure components, like router and switch configurations, and virtual machines and ESX.
- Cross-platform APIs – These APIs provide integration with third party cloud APIs and enable multi-tenancy and API-sharing so users can access more features and deploy web services rapidly.
Classification of Cloud Services APIs
Cloud services APIs are broadly classified according to how end-users consume particular services and how an organization defines its business requirements. For example, Facebook and Google APIs help a developer create interactive services with the help of Open Graph and Maps APIs respectively. REST, JSON, and OAuth are some of the mechanisms through which developers can expose their APIs and bind them with other services. The following is a list of API classes that are prevalent in the industry from a technology perspective. This list is by no means exhaustive.
- Social APIs that enable file, photo, and video sharing, among others and logs user activities
- Communication APIs that enable messaging, phone, and video calls
- Location APIs that enable real-time location-based services like geotagging or georeferencing
- Services APIs that enable analytics, advertising, and e-commerce activities
- Security APIs that enable data encryption and user authentication
- File sharing APIs that enable file sharing and real-time data manipulation
- Search APIs that enable graph-based search and data retrieval from cloud services
Benefits of Cloud Services APIs
Since cloud APIs are inherently programmable and configurable, they enjoy precedence over physical infrastructure. This is one of the many benefits APIs provide to an enterprise. Some of the other benefits are:
- No more headaches about database and server administration or load balancing. Developers can focus on writing the code and ignore non-essential, redundant tasks
- Availability of command line interfaces and IDEs like Eclipse
- Single window management of all applications via an admin console
- Auto-scaling of your applications in sync with your users
- Wide range of storage services for quick and easy retrieval of data. Whether it’s MySQL or NoSQL, the APIs will provide you with much needed object storage and caching
- Consistent and predictive performance across all facets of local and server computing
- Access to a variety of analytical dashboards to monitor resource usage and performance, and also to identify emerging patterns
Client Says
We are implementing Plasma Ag Solutions across our network of locations. Plasma Ag provides several capabilities that stand out for our users such as Programs, Rebate management, and Inventory tracking. It is quite difficult to track margin information on crop protection products in our industry so our Owner Operators love the transparency the system provides. We utilize the system to professionalize our support to the network and it has become a bit success with all of them.
Several hundreds of our retail locations and joint ventures use Plasma Ag solutions as a part of their core operations. Plasma solutions provide very useful tools and deep insights to users – including tracking customer transactions and financial information. Their applications are tightly integrated with CRM, ERP, Accounting, and our other mission critical IT infrastructure and third-party systems. The dashboards provide rich analysis and insights that helps us adjust to the changing markets.
Plasma Ag solutions have been a tremendous asset to our operations. They offer powerful capabilities such as managing Retail programs, Products, Programs, local discounts, and wraps. Ability to track inventory at physical locations, calculating true and average costs, rebates and accruals on user-friendly and simple interfaces has helped us and our retail customers adopt Plasma Ag solutions quickly.
Our software, system and processes used to be an old struggling engine. Plasma team solved all that. With exceptional training and planning, their consultative executive team down to their support team executed the deployment with first-class speed and professionalism. Their platform not only removed all the pain points in my division, but also created a ripple effect benefiting my entire company.
It has been my experience that Plasma has the technical expertise, commitment, and work-ethic to deliver best-in-class solutions that allow business owners to fully realize business strategies and objectives. They work in a highly professional manner to ensure that the clients’ requirements and recommendations are fully realized. I would highly recommend Plasma for any web enablement initiative that you may be considering.
Plasma has been a smart choice for us as our online business partner. I don’t even consider our work with them outsourcing because Plasma management takes the time to truly understand our business and is able to direct its technology resources for the most efficient and quality output possible. I don’t think you can say that about many companies in their space.
Plasma has been a smart choice for us with our online requirements. I would recommend them to any company looking to better manage their online presence.
It has been my pleasure to work with the Plasma Team since August 2008. We have completed three major builds and multiple smaller projects in this time. I heartily recommend Plasma Comp to anyone needing a workable, practical and effective system solution. Plasma’s Q&A process was extremely thorough. They quickly understood what was needed and then worked the process with pointed and penetrating questions to ensure they had the entire picture of the finished product.
I think Plasma has come a long way in embracing our philosophy of becoming more agile, both leading and following in this area when necessary. The teams have been very open to change and have a great attitude. I have no complaints!
Plasma is a great vendor to work with. They took us from an email-based process to a fully designed, web-based workflow. They have dramatically changed how our devices are certified to be used on our network and they will save you time as well! One of the many processes in our current environment has saved us so much time; from four months down to a few days!
