Individual API Deployments Will Get Smaller and More Numerous

by Kin Lane on 02/02/2013

Master API architect at Layer7 Technologies Mike Amundsen (@mamund) has a great post this week on Four Tech-Related Trends That Will Shape 2013.

One of the predictions that caught my eye was that "individual service deployments on the Web will get smaller and more numerous"--he clarifies it with:

Influenced by the existence of the many mobile apps running on a single device, Web-based services will become small, single-focused offerings that (in the words of Doug Mcllroy) “do one thing and do it well.” This will also explode the number of available services. The advantage of this trend will be an increase in the agility and evolvability of service offerings. The challenge will be an increased need for governance at the “micro-service” level.

I have to agree. I think the smaller we can break resources down, the better. Agility is key in the API economy. But as Mike points out it won't come without its new set of problems, like life cycle, governance and discovery.

Much like web pages, I think we'll still try to estimate the number APIs available, but there will be so many, we will lose track in the near future. But we'll find an organic approach to designing, deploying, managing, discovering and consuming web APIs that strikes a balance.