API Harmony delivered via IBM Bluemix
API Harmony will be delivered as a cloud service through IBM Bluemix Platform as a Service (PaaS). Using the intelligent search technology inside API Harmony, developers on Bluemix will be able to locate the API they need to complete their project. This approach is very interesting because Bluemix is not just targeted at developers.
IBM has always made it clear that a key market for Bluemix is enabling non-developers to construct applications. This is where API Harmony might just have its greatest impact. It will help those people who are not natural developers describe what they are trying to achieve and then do the heavy lift for them. At this level API Harmony is likely to have a significant impact.
For customers using the cloud-based solution this means that they will begin to see the benefits quickly. The same is true for those customers using Bluemix Dedicated which is managed by IBM as a cloud-based dedicated solution. For those customers using Bluemix Local such as ANZ Bank there will be questions over how they control API Harmony.
These are not the only questions. For example where will API Harmony will look for the APIs? Will it search the Internet? Will it only use APIs that are already known to Bluemix? Can companies point it to collections of APIs that it trusts and similarly block APIs that it doesn’t trust?
Managing APIs for perfect Harmony
The press release talks about IBM’s API Management software to help customers assemble, manage, secure, publish and socialise their APIs. This appears to provide a solution to the question of management which should help customers rest assured that API Harmony is not going to search the Internet to find APIs but work within a controlled environment.
Another source of APIs is also talked about in the press release, the Open API Initiative being created by the Linux Foundation. This is known as the Swagger specification and IBM is one of the founding members. The goal is to create a shared governance model and technical community around the Swagger specification. If successful, it will deliver a growing library of APIs that meet strict technical standards and which could be seen as a trusted source.
