API first: the importance of an API centered approach in native cloud app development

The advent of the cloud has determined a remarkable review of software and application development paradigms. Probably though, despite the feverish evolution of "Cloud" services, a non-technical user wouldn’t be perfectly able to perceive the extent of their impact on the design and development paradigm of application software.

It wouldn’t even be enough to emphasize the fact that the greatest market players are massively subscribing to cloud-native paradigms for the development of innovative applications and models.

The problem

However, symptomatic elements of the mindset change operated by developers in the realization of native cloud applications are tangible in a multitude of situations we live daily.

For instance, to read this article we are using an interface. And to get here, we have probably clicked on a series of links, thus taking advantage of a further interface designed to navigate through the various links to get to the desired destination.

Or let's imagine we have to buy a plane ticket and find us on one of those sites that compare thousands of flights immediately.

How can a website or an application store such a large amount of data and understand what to show from time to time? It would be extremely inefficient to develop a software with a database that you have to update every day with huge amounts of data. Some information must be taken somewhere else when you need it. So how?

The Solution

Whether you are an experienced user or not, the answer is: through the API. An API (Application Programming Interface) is a ​set of communication definitions and protocols ​regulating and ​realizing the integration​ between software and apps. The main advantage they offer is a clear simplification of application development processes and a consequent saving of time and money.

This is due to API interoperability, which allows communication between products or services regardless of the knowledge of the implementation methods.

This results in a significant facilitation of the design, administration and use processes, both in the implementation of native - and the management of existing - instruments and products.

Adopting an API-first strategic approach, hence, has a remarkable value when ​scaling your ​business​.

API first

In attempt to to fully exploit the edges of the cloud-native systems, in GreenVulcano, we rewrote the designing phase of Sensoworks, Claudio, and GAIA products into a brand-new approach for the development of our applications: the API first.

Indeed, our developers needed a sort of metamorphosis, where the “API first” paradigm acquires unconditioned priority.

API first​ is, hence, a systems ​development model​ which, affecting all the stream in the developing stage, ​centers the API around the development strategy​.

Adopting an API first approach, for the implementation of native cloud applications, allows to accelerate the development process; an aspect of remarkable importance to respond to the changes of a constantly evolving market.

The greater the skills of a company to lively and rapidly adapt to the market, the higher the value it can offer to its users and its future competitive capability.

Embracing an API first approach shows that it is not the app itself to be enough for the customer experience, but rather the interoperability between applications and websites that allows to design and integrate technological resources that can be reused to meet the needs of users according to a user-centered perspective.