Prepared by Ross Mason,

Founder of MuleSoft
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R

Ross Mason,
Founder of MuleSoft
Ross founded MuleSoft in 2006 on the idea that connecting applications should be
easy, building on the open-source Mule project he created. In 2017 he took MuleSoft
public (NYSE:MULE) and in 2018 MuleSoft was acquired by Salesforce.

Ross continues to advise MuleSoft’s strategy, whilst TechCrunch, CIO.com. Ross was named a Henry Crown
providing thought leadership on digital and cultural Fellow by the Aspen Institute in 2020.
transformation. Ross is also a prolific angel investor,
helping founders build the next generation of enterprise Prior to MuleSoft, Ross was Chief Executive Officer
software companies and recently launched his own of SymphonySoft Limited, an EU-based company
venture capital fund, Dig Ventures. providing services and support for large-scale integration
projects. Previously, Ross was an early developer at
Ross is a regular keynote speaker at technology conferences Atlassian and was Lead Architect for RaboBank, playing
like WebSummit and Dreamforce. He has been repeatedly a key role in developing one of the first large-scale ESB
featured in WSJ, Forbes, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, implementations in 2002.

2
Contents
Chapter 01 Chapter 02
The new role of the CIO The democratization of innovation
To survive in today’s business world, companies need IT leaders can democratize innovation by unlocking
tech- and business-savvy CIOs to drive strategic base materials with APIs for the broader organization to
initiatives and growth opportunities. innovate on their own.

By Ross Mason, Founder of MuleSoft By Vala Afshar, Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce

Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05

From APIs to thriving API ownership for the Unlock innovation with
business ecosystems digital enterprise API-led connectivity
Successful digital organizations recognize their APIs API ownership is critical for the long-term success API-led connectivity liberates resources, enabling
grow in value the more they are connected to a broader of APIs. Assigning the right owner will help drive innovation and speed.
ecosystem. accelerated project delivery and higher quality.
By Ross Mason, Founder of MuleSoft
By David Berlind, Editor-in-Chief of ProgrammableWeb By Stephen Fishman, RVP of Customer Success Strategy
Foreword
BY ROSS MASON, FOUNDER, MULESOFT

More has changed in the workplace in the first few months of 2020 than the past 10
years. When I started thinking about the key IT theme for 2020 in November last
year, I came up with — “Here comes everybody”— but at the time the sentiment
and urgency were very different. The idea of “here comes everybody” is that many
more people within your organization need access to data, digital capabilities, and
resources, and increasingly, they need to build without the direct help of IT.

Think the myriad of reports and dashboards, small Digital is now imperative “Every industry is facing
sudden and immediate
automations to handle routine tasks and workflows across Just a few months ago, digital transformation was a journey
applications to work faster with fewer mistakes. Your moving at different speeds. But digital is now imperative.
employees need more digital independence. In the wake of Every industry is facing sudden and immediate change. change. The imperative
is to deliver fast.”
COVID-19, where everyone is working remotely, the notion The imperative is to deliver fast. We’re talking to a lot of IT
that everybody in your company needs more access to leadership across industries and I’d like to share with you
digital capabilities has become urgent. what we’re hearing from them during this unsettling time.

4 FIRST, BREAK IT: Foreword

→ “It’s business as unusual. We’re just reacting.” These are challenging times, so what is the Remote workforce
opportunity for IT?
→ “Our network infrastructure was never designed for this.”

→ “We had to move quickly to get the right data and spin For years, IT has been trying to effect change but has
up a new reporting system.” struggled to create the influence and impetus. But now

→ “When we go back to normal, normal isn’t going to be

everyone in your organization is receptive and sympathetic 3% Pre-pandemic1
to change. It is up to IT to define how business and IT will
what it was like before.”
work together from now on.

Most organizations were already going digital, but nobody After network and communication tools the biggest
was planning for a fully remote and digitally enabled barrier to remote working is access to data and digital
workforce. The pandemic has challenged all our capabilities. Without access, it is very difficult to implement
assumptions about the immediate future of work.
88%
2
new projects, workflow improvements, or changes to Pandemic
What was once a small contingency, is now an customer experiences.
overwhelming majority.

IT is the steward of data and digital capabilities. And IT

needs to make these capabilities available to everyone in
Your workforce is going to stay remote
the organization so they can get their jobs done with more
Before the crisis, just 3% of the workforce worked remotely. digital independence. When people are in the same building,

30%
Right now it is about 88% but when we go back to a new to keep projects moving it is much easier to use swivel-chair Post-pandemic1
normal it is estimated that 30% of the workforce will be integration — to go and talk to someone in IT face-to-face
remote. For many, one-third of your workforce will still be to get the data you need for a report. With much of your
remote at the end of the next fiscal year. company working remote for the next year or longer, the old
way of getting things done — face-to-face needs to change.
1
Global Workplace Analytics 2
Gartner HR Survey, March 2020

5 FIRST, BREAK IT: Foreword

IT needs to become self-service for everybody. And I mean
everybody. Sales ops, marketing, developers, supply chain
Unlocking innovation through self-service IT
management, support. Anything that can run remotely
needs to be ready to run remotely. IT is truly the enabler for
the rest of the organization.

Your company needs a new model for innovation Marketing Ops

Self-serve
Workflows
While innovation may seem like a nice to have right now,
the reality of a remote workforce and suddenly changing
Training
consumer behaviors mean that nothing works the way it did,
thus innovation is needed. This is business unusual… there is
no going back to 2019. Dashboards Customer Support

Central IT APIs & data sources

Shifting much of IT to a self-service model is challenging.

Though it might come as some comfort that this remedy
isn’t completely new. Many of our customers have started
Automation
to make this journey towards self-service, but now all at Help center

App Developers
once here comes everybody.

Marketing, customer support, application developers, Citizen integration

business analysts, sales operations, technicians, supply
chain ops and more.
Business Analysts

Your employees need access to data and capabilities.

6 FIRST, BREAK IT: Foreword

They also need access to self-paced training and responsive And everybody will need to connect the applications they
IT enablement and support when they get stuck. This is a use to create dashboards, automations, and workflows — so
new way of operating for most companies, but it is critical citizen integration capabilities are key.
to move fast.

50%
Your employees need to be able to find data sources, skill
Your people are truly your greatest asset. Second are your up on tools that allow them to connect to applications, and
digital assets. Your people know how to run your business, get help when they get stuck. They need to be able to do
and your digital assets tell you what is actually happening. this without doing the wrong thing, without creating a mess
The better you can mobilize your people with digital or worse.
capabilities to help them work fast and with agility, the
better foundation your business has for success. It is IT’s role to make these digital assets and tools available,
but also ensure secure and governed access at all times.
What do your employees outside of IT need to do? It is
similar to what IT has been doing but at a smaller scale. Your IT organization needs to be intentional about how you
digitally enable your workforce and still protect your digital Reduction in projects delivered is necessary
Marketing and sales need to create reports and assets. You can’t give people access to everything and you over the next two years for central IT teams.
dashboards to better monitor and understand changes can’t lock them out of everything. You need a strategy that
in the business. finds the right balance for each part of your organization.

Human resources need to automate workflows to make it IT still needs to work on the more complex projects and
easier for employees to navigate their new workplace. those that span multiple departments. But IT also needs
to be creating a self-service capability that reduces the
Customer support and app developers will all need to number of projects it delivers by 50% over the next two
make automations within their domain to adjust and work years, while enabling the broader organization to deliver
effectively while remote. those projects.

7 FIRST, BREAK IT: Foreword

Before, to get access to data for a report, sales ops would
need to make a formal project request. IT would need to
innovation while keeping the trains running, responding
to time-sensitive initiatives, and enabling people to be
“IT has to change its mindset
schedule and spin up the project, meet with stakeholders productive at home. from being the deliverer of
for weeks gathering requirements, go figure out how to
get the data, clean the data up, and then create a new
projects to the enabler of projects.
database and infrastructure to host the data and give the Moving from reactive to proactive This means comprehensive
stakeholders access to it. In the face of this pandemic, there is a real opportunity for
IT to lead now that your organization is ready for change,
online training and a first-class
In this new “self-service world,” most of that data would and ready to accept new ways of doing things. help center focused on
enablement — so everybody
already be available through existing data sources and APIs.
Stakeholders could search through the data sources and There is no more “business as usual.” Only the parts of your
APIs to see what’s available to them and decide whether organization that work with physical products/locations in your company can be more
productive.”
there was enough for them to continue to build their report will have to return, you can assume everyone else will be
on their own or get IT support to help get the remaining mostly remote for the rest of the year and beyond.
data. This greatly reduces the load on IT and allows your
employees to go faster and further on their own. of what they need. You need a strategy for citizen
In order to shift from reactive to proactive, IT needs to
integrations, self-serve data, and self-serve APIs.
have guiding principles on how it is going to operate going
In order for this to work, IT has to change its mindset from forward. Things to consider: → Access to data is critical as reporting and metrics will be
being the deliverer of projects to the enabler of projects.
even more important for a remote workforce and rapidly
This means comprehensive online training and first-class
→ Every department, to make doing their job effectively changing consumer behavior.
help center, focused on enablement — enabling everybody
while remote will be making changes to their
in your company to be productive. → You are buying new software, change management and
workflows, approval processes, and automations.
onboarding is happening remotely. IT needs to offer a
IT’s role is now more important than ever before — you → There will be many more demands on IT, you need one place for e-learning and upskilling (before: in-person
have to become the steward and enabler of digital to be set up for self-service for everyone to get most training, company off-sites, and company road shows).

8 FIRST, BREAK IT: Foreword

→ IT still needs to govern what is accessed and by whom. road, and it doesn’t make sense to eventually have to un-
But the new focus is for self-service, self-help and do the IT choices/investments you make today. In this
ultimately, self-reliance for employees. You need a time of uncertainty, you should be seeking future-proof
governance strategy for each part of your organization. technology that’s flexible, capable of handling change, and

20%
Essentially, giving people outside of IT a safe digital that puts you in a position to navigate an uncertain future
sandbox within which to build. with speed and agility — this approach enables you to
create your own flywheel of compounding benefits
→ Know that you will need to make some quick fixes but
that creates technical debt. Measure these activities
This helps you withstand future changes and forms the
and make sure that this is less than 20% of what your
bedrock of your innovation going forward. Most
IT team works on.
importantly it unlocks the manpower in your organization
→ Finally, by the end of 2021, when 30% of your to move with speed and agility — whether remote
workforce is still remote, you should have reduced the or otherwise.
number of IT projects considerably as more of your
Or less of your IT team’s time should be
company is empowered and enabled to deliver small
spent on address necessary quick fixes, as they
projects with the digital resources IT has provided.
will inevitably create technical debt.

If things go well, more and more of your organization can

get their jobs done without central IT being a handbrake
on the business.

The choices IT makes in this moment are critical: you

have options, but not all options are created equal — you
don’t want to find yourself in this same position down the

9 FIRST, BREAK IT: Foreword

 The new role
01

of the CIO
C H A P T E R

BY ROSS MASON, FOUNDER, MULESOFT

To survive today, companies need tech-savvy leaders. The convergence of cloud, SaaS, “CIOs need to step up
mobile, big data, and more is turning every company into a technology company.
and partner closely with
As a result, CIOs need to step up and partner closely with Over many years, companies have built up treasure business leaders to drive
business leaders to drive strategic initiatives and growth
opportunities. In some cases, CIOs are even stepping up
troves of valuable data about their customers, products,
supply chains, operations, and more, but they’re not
strategic initiatives and
into the CEO role itself. good at making it available in useful ways. That’s a missed growth opportunities.”
opportunity at best, and a fatal error at worst. Within
Organizations are traditionally protective of proprietary today’s digital ecosystems, business is driven by getting
assets, but by opening up APIs, companies can reap information to the right people at the right time. Staying
growth and create new revenue streams. competitive is not so much about how many applications
you own or how many developers you employ.

10
Over many years, companies have built
up treasure troves of valuable data about
their customers, products, supply chains,
operations, and more, but they’re not good
at making it available in useful ways.
That’s a missed opportunity at best, and
a fatal error at worst.
R O S S M A S O N, F O U ND E R , M U L E S O F T

11
It’s about how effectively you trade on the insights and are heart-of-the-business issues, and businesses can do offering and imagine it from the ground up, with an API
services across your balance sheet. all of them more effectively by exposing, orchestrating, serving data, media, and assets. The second is to build
and monetizing services through APIs. an internal discipline for creating APIs strategically rather
Integration is often seen as a necessary headache. But by than on a project-by-project basis. Put a team together
using APIs to drive innovation from the inside out, CIOs In the past, technical interfaces dominated discussions to build the initial APIs, create definitions for what APIs
are turning integration into a competitive advantage. It about integration and service-oriented architecture. mean to your organization, and define common traits
all comes down to leverage: taking the things you already But services, treated as products, are what really open so you’re not reinventing the wheel each time. This
do well and bringing them to the broadest possible up cross-disciplinary, cross-enterprise, cross-functional method typically requires some adjustment, since teams
audience. capabilities. The CIO has a critical role to play in all this, are used to building tactically. But ultimately, it forces
potentially as the evangelist for the new thinking, and an organization to look at what assets really matter
Which of your assets could be reused, repurposed, certainly as the caretaker of the architecture, platform, and creates value by opening up data sets, giving IT an
or revalued — inside your organization or outside? As and governance that should surround APIs. opportunity to help create new products and services.
traditional business models decline, APIs can be a vehicle
to spur growth, and even create new paths to revenue. The first step for CIOs to take toward designing that Follow this path and CIOs become the essential catalyst
Viewing APIs in this way requires a shift in thinking. The next-generation connected ecosystem is to prepare their for business innovation in the digital economy.
new integration mindset focuses less on just connecting talent to think about it in the appropriate way. Set up a
applications and more on exposing information within developer program and educate staff about APIs. Switch So, what are you waiting for? Play on.
and beyond your organizational boundaries. It’s the mindset so that IT thinks not just about building,
concerned less with how IT runs, and more with how testing, and runtimes, but about delivering the data — the
the business runs. assets of value. Consider a new role: the cross-functional
project manager who can weave together various systems
“The commercial potential of the
The commercial potential of the API economy really into a compelling new business offering. API economy really emerges
when the CEO champions it and
emerges when the CEO champions it and the board
gets involved. Customer experience, global expansion, We typically see organizations take two approaches to
omnichannel engagement, and regulatory compliance implementing APIs. The first is to build a new product the board gets involved.”
12 FIRST, BREAK IT: The new role of the CIO
 The democratization
0 2

of innovation
C H A P T E R

BY VALA AFSHAR, CHIEF DIGITAL EVANGELIST, SALESFORCE

Integration is one of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing CIOs today. Done “The killer of innovation
right and even the largest and oldest organizations in the world can innovate like
is not legacy systems but
nimble startups. Done wrong and organizations will slow down to a permanent and
a legacy mindset.”
devastating halt. Integration strategies today make or break companies.

While the vast majority of organizations (97%) are In addition, 92% of IT organizations say integration
currently undertaking or plan to undertake digital needs to expand beyond IT to a wide range of business
transformation initiatives — through technologies such areas, from business analysts and data science to HR
as big data analytics, IoT, and artificial intelligence — and marketing.
businesses still struggle to overcome the traditionally
fragmented way of operating. Another key finding from the 2020 Connectivity
Benchmark Report, published by MuleSoft and

13
Salesforce, is that the growing need for IT support has led
Integration needs from business teams
to organizations needing to rely more on APIs to deliver
significant business outcomes. are increasing the demand for IT

Ninety-one percent of organizations that own public and/

or private APIs report greater productivity and decreased
operational costs, among other benefits. For 48% of
Of IT leaders report the need
respondents, APIs also generate more than 25% of their
for integration spans across the
organization’s revenue. By creating reusable API assets, IT
not only improves the efficiency of their processes but also
97% organization. Requests for integration
projects are increasing across all

94%
increases overall delivery speed and capacity for the business.
business functions.

I recently caught up with integration expert Ross Mason,

who founded MuleSoft back in 2006 on the premise that Of IT organizations say integration
connecting systems and applications together should be needs to expand beyond IT to a
easy. MuleSoft’s (now part of Salesforce) mission is to help
92% wide range of business areas, from
organizations change and innovate faster by making it easy business analysts and data science
to connect the world’s applications, data, and devices. to HR and marketing.
Before MuleSoft, Ross worked with investment banks in
Europe to connect hundreds of systems together and was
The vast majority of organizations (97%)
struck by how woefully complicated and limited everything Of organizations that own public
are currently undertaking or plan to
was. It’s what spurred him into creating MuleSoft. and/or private APIs report greater
91%
undertake digital transformation initiatives.
productivity and decreased operational
This book captures the key insights from Ross on how the IT costs, among other benefits.
landscape has evolved over the past 10 years, the strategic

14 FIRST, BREAK IT: The democratization of innovation

 value of APIs, and his tips for CIOs looking to drive Startups can launch in a matter of weeks and completely For
business transformation in the age of AI, open banking change consumer expectations overnight. As a result,
and everything-as-a-service. the pace of product introduction and innovation has
accelerated from five to 10 years to one or two years.

The evolving business landscape

Across the globe, every organization is feeling pressure
Trying to guess what the market wants when it’s in a
state of constant disruption is extremely difficult. Not
48%
from disruptors. With unlimited cloud compute power, to mention, competing with the speed of Amazon,
free developer tools, and a growing bench of open APIs, Airbnb, and Uber is no easy feat for organizations still
the barrier to entry in every industry has evaporated. relying on 50-year-old legacy technology. MuleSoft’s
recent IT report found that “legacy infrastructure and of respondents, APIs generate

“With unlimited cloud compute systems” was the most frequently reported challenge to more than
digital transformation and was listed as an obstacle to
power, free developer tools, introducing new technologies like AI and IoT.

and a growing bench of open To move fast and thrive in today’s hyper-competitive
APIs, the barrier to entry in landscape, CIOs need to democratize innovation. In

every industry has evaporated.

25%
other words, CIOs need to unlock the value of their
organization’s data and assets to empower broader teams
Startups can launch in a matter to innovate freely with them. The killer of innovation is not

of weeks and completely legacy systems but a legacy mindset.

change consumer expectations

overnight.” of their organization’s revenue.

15 FIRST, BREAK IT: The democratization of innovation

APIs play a major role in making innovation innovate independently. As a result, modern APIs have
IT decision makers are
accessible to all become building blocks for innovation today.

Taking a step back, organizations historically designed

We’ve seen it work incredibly well on the World Wide feeling the pain
Web. The iPhone is heralded as one of the key innovations
themselves as castles with moats, where no one got in
of the 21st century. However, it wasn’t the device itself
or out easily. The valuable resources were only accessed
that drove the iPhone’s popularity. Rather, it was the
by a small, trusted group (i.e., IT). To be successful today,
applications on the iPhone. And those applications are
organizations need to decentralize and design for the
all built on the common building blocks available on the
broader villages in mind, where different groups can freely
Web today — APIs. Because of APIs, apps like Uber and
access data of value so they can self start and build up
Lyft didn’t need their own mapping systems or payment
their own economies.
systems built. Instead, they leveraged Google and Stripe’s

“Once you have some of the

open APIs.
TOP IT
PAIN POINTS

building blocks in place, you can The point is that all these different capabilities can be

start reusing them and driving

stitched together with API building blocks to create new
products and services quickly. This is where innovation

innovation quickly and at scale.” comes from: Once you have some of the building blocks
in place, you can start reusing them and driving innovation Disconnected legacy Negative financial
infrastructure and implications of failure to
quickly and at scale. systems digitally transform
Democratizing innovation really means unlocking base
materials for people who are going to innovate on Keeping the lights on
instead of innovating
their own. Most enterprises have decades of valuable APIs create a network effect of value
information and capabilities trapped in legacy systems,
If an API strategy is set up right, it absolutely can have a
such as inventory and customer data. With APIs, IT leaders
network effect. A common mistake many organizations
can open up that data and allow their broader villages to
make is writing APIs as pieces of code that will get used

16 FIRST, BREAK IT: The democratization of innovation

once. With this approach, organizations will end up with
Airbus uses APIs to connect data from
a bunch of random, under-leveraged APIs. However, if
APIs are treated as reusable products that get evangelized cloud and on-premises systems
and if they are used to create new products and services,
these APIs will grow into application networks — which are
networks of applications, data, and devices all connected
via pluggable and reusable APIs.

It’s important to note that application networks are

not built outright, and they are not products that can
be bought and airlifted into place. They are iterative
architectures that emerge project by project. As APIs are
Cloud systems On-premises systems
built, they start to get reused in future projects alongside
a couple new ones that are needed for each new project.
Because the APIs are discoverable and consumable, an
API store begins to grow and gets leveraged by broader
Airbus unlocked and
groups. For example, global aircraft manufacturer Airbus aggregated data from cloud
built a mobile application that shop floor operators can and on-premises systems
access to gain real-time visibility into parts and projects.

Building a set of APIs, Airbus was able to unlock and

aggregate data from its cloud and on-premises systems
Built a set of Reduced time
to power its mobile app, reducing time to market for APIs to power to market for
a new aircraft. The same API strategy is being used to its mobile app a new aircraft
provide data to the wider aviation industry through Airbus

17 FIRST, BREAK IT: The democratization of innovation

and Palantir’s open data platform Skywise. As a result,
Pilot Flying J uses APIs to unlock data from
airline customers and industry partners can develop and
deploy their own capabilities on top of this rich data to legacy systems and power its mobile app
improve things like fleet operational reliability, aircraft
performance, and maintenance effectiveness.

In addition, Pilot Flying J — the largest operator of travel

centers and travel plazas in North America — leverages an
API strategy to connect valuable data from its complex
legacy systems with its mobile app. Using the same APIs,
Pilot Flying J can make its capabilities externalizable
so trusted customers, and partners can integrate the
capabilities into their own workflows for frictionless
customer experiences. According to Pilot Flying J’s chief Legacy systems
Leverages an API strategy to
strategy and information officer Mike Rodgers, “They just connect valuable data from
subscribe to the API and consume that data.” its complex legacy systems
with its mobile app

And that’s the game-changer. Organizations that can turn

their data and assets into discoverable and consumable
building blocks for internal as well as external partners
Using the same APIs, Pilot
to build on top of level the playing field with disruptors. Flying J can make its
If organizations don’t get to this point, then they’re still capabilities externalizable
so trusted customers, and
functioning as moated castles without enabling their
partners can integrate the
surrounding villages to innovate. And their castles will capabilities into their own
soon crumble as disruptive forces chisel away. workflows

18 FIRST, BREAK IT: The democratization of innovation

We live in a world where if a
company is too risk-averse and never
experiments or innovates, it will die.
On the other hand, if the company
experiments too much and fails,
it will also die.
Y V O N N E W A S S E N A A R , C I O - T U R N E D - C E O , A I R W A R E

19
 From APIs to thriving
0 3
C H A P T E R

business ecosystems
BY DAVID BERLIND, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, PROGRAMMABLEWEB
AND VARUN KROV VI, PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, MULESOFT

The world is undergoing digital transformation across every industry. APIs are the
digital access point to the business capabilities that power the digital economy.

On the one hand, organizations such as WatchBox, Wells Consumer-centric thinking

Fargo, and Splunk are transforming into companies of the Traditionally, “consumer” is a term used to reference
future by building their businesses on the bedrock of API- customers in a B2C business. In the world of APIs,
led connectivity. On the other hand, companies that lack an all customers are technically consumers, but not all
API strategy are finding it difficult to innovate and keep pace consumers are customers.
in the digital age. The most successful digital organizations
recognize that their APIs grow in value the more they “Consumer” is short for someone or something that
are connected to a broader ecosystem of applications, consumes or uses an API. Sometimes we use the phrase
developers, partners, and customer experiences. “consuming developer” to avoid any ambiguity. It’s a

20
reference to a developer that consumes APIs in the course
of developing an application — internal or external to
vendors, etc. These partnerships are mutually beneficial
for everyone involved and valuable for their collective
“The first step towards
an organization. In contrast, a customer is exactly that: customers. Empowered with a fresh perspective of defining a great customer
a customer of the organization. In either a B2C or B2B
context, it is a person or business that purchases goods or
consumer-centric thinking, organizations should be
open to reimagining value creation in collaboration with
experience starts with
services from your organization. their partners. consumer-centric thinking.”
The first step towards defining a great customer When ecosystems are organized with value creation for
experience starts with consumer-centric thinking — an all stakeholders in mind, it can be a win-win-win for all
outside-in approach where business leaders: — including the organization that hosts the ecosystem,
the partners and developers with whom the value is co-

→ Imagine the best possible end-to-end customer created, and the customer, who ultimately benefits from

experience. the customer experience.

→ Recruit into your ecosystems the necessary partners to

co-create that value. 7 steps to cultivating a thriving API ecosystem
The World Wide Web is scattered with well intentioned
→ Put the API-led technological fabric in place to
uni-dimensional advice on APIs, which can be confusing
enable experiences that propel the success of
for companies in different stages in their API strategy
future enterprises.
journey. MuleSoft, in partnership with ProgrammableWeb,
has observed and worked with thousands of organizations
As the API economy matures, an increasing number at varying stages of API maturity. The best practices are
of organizations are co-creating API-based products in summarized in seven key steps:
collaboration with other ecosystem members — including
customers, partners, independent developers, software

21 FIRST, BREAK IT: From APIs to thriving business ecosystems

STEP 01 START WITH CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE F E AT U R E D C U S T O ME R S T O RY

BP
Regardless of whether your final consumer is a customer,
an internal stakeholder, or a developer, start with defining
the best possible customer experience or business
outcome, while avoiding any preconceived notions about “Our API strategy is right at the heart of our application ambition and
the organization’s limitations or capabilities. technology transformation. We can now embed digital in everything we do.”

DIANA KENNEDY, VP, IT&S STRATEGY, ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING, BP

This approach is known as an “outside-in” strategy: relying
on customer needs and preferences to guide strategy. The
outside-in perspective is objective, oriented around your
consumers’ use cases, rather than the structure of the data
in your system. This approach considers both developers
— the API’s direct customers — and the end-users those
developers serve. Outside-in thinking requires the collective
imagination of the organization to work together. As a As the world demands more energy, it also demands BP has adopted an API strategy with MuleSoft to
result, both IT and business teams should be involved in that it be produced and delivered in new ways with accelerate IT delivery. By unlocking key systems,
brainstorming next generation customer experiences. fewer emissions. BP is embracing this dual challenge and applications and data with APIs, central IT can empower
making bold changes to modernize its business. the business to self-serve and develop their own
The key to BP achieving these business goals is to technology solutions — speeding up project delivery and
unleash the potential of digital solutions, big data and supercharging innovation.
advanced technologies. The BP information technology
and services (IT&S) team is increasing the pace of Read BP’s customer story
technology delivery and securing data access, while
reducing dependencies on costly and time-consuming
legacy systems.

22 FIRST, BREAK IT: From APIs to thriving business ecosystems

STEP 02 EMBRACE ECOSYSTEM PRINCIPLES → With extensive experimentation, organizations need a
data-driven mindset and a direction for management
“Organizations are constructing
ecosystems with APIs as
Do you currently see your technology assets as
differentiated business capabilities? Organizations are and operations. To drive maximum value, leaders
constructing ecosystems with APIs as building blocks that should continuously size their ecosystem investments
for revenue, productivity, and customer experience to
building blocks that they can
they can reuse in the API economy and act as a launchpad
for future growth. In their journey to building a company identify where APIs can best add value. Leaders should reuse in the API economy
of the future, organizations should embrace these employ a disciplined approach to identify APIs that have
the highest business impact and strategic value while
and act as a launchpad for
ecosystem principles to unlock new innovations:
keeping in mind the importance of quick wins. future growth.”
→ APIs are now seen as products and services. The shift → Organizations should not worry about cannibalizing their
STEP 03 DEFINE AN API BUSINESS MODEL
in thinking towards APIs as products may pose the own business for short-term revenues; instead, they
To drive a sustainable API ecosystem within an organization,
biggest hurdle along the way for organizations to truly should focus on sustaining long-term customer loyalty
it’s important to define a monetization approach based on
unlock new sources of revenue. Organizations should — even if it means opening up to other companies being
the value that data and APIs deliver to different audiences.
break their current thought barriers and open up their the point of engagement for customers or including
API business models are segmented into two branches:
business models — letting partners and developers in the competitors’ offerings in their end-to-end customer
internal and external.
door to co-create value. experience to enhance the customer’s value chain.

→ As organizations build API products, they must avoid For internal API products, organizations should evaluate
crumbling under questions such as “how should their API investments based on reduced operational
I bundle the products?” or “how should I go to expenditure, demonstrated value with legacy
market with the products?” — as these questions get modernization, and increased efficiency.
overwhelming quickly. Be prepared to experiment,
fail fast, and mature your API capabilities as your For external API products, organizations should
ecosystem evolves. brainstorm on the business models that can open new
revenue streams or valuable business opportunities.

23 FIRST, BREAK IT: From APIs to thriving business ecosystems

In establishing a sustainable digital strategy, organizations STEP 04 ENGAGE WITH PARTNERS AND learn how third-party developers would partner with your
should consider a variety of business models to drive long- CO-CREATE VALUE API product offering in the future.
term value: These include but are not limited to: Once you identify your customer experiences and

→ Partner programs to integrate with select partners.

outcomes, reconcile them against your organization’s core
competencies and capabilities. Here’s what you may find:
“Hackathons are a great way
Organizations can explore revenue-generating tactics to learn how third-party
such as revenue sharing and shared platform models to
advance the core competencies of both parties.
→ In most cases, provided the brainstorming wasn’t
developers would partner
constrained by any preconceived notions, you will find

→ Productization of APIs intended to be self-service and

gaps in your organization’s capabilities. In terms of time- with your API product offering
public facing. Organization leaders need to evaluate and
to-market, resist the temptation to fill those gaps with
in the future.”
anything but third-party or partner-provided capabilities.
determine which monetization approach will drive the
most strategic long-term value. Examples include the → Identify the best partners to join your ecosystem to STEP 05 DESIGN AND DELIVER API PRODUCTS
direct monetization of standalone APIs — based on a address those gaps and serve as your co-creators for Finalize the API designs and the systems necessary for your
variety of consumption formulas — or using APIs to create delivering great customer experiences. thriving API ecosystem, then develop APIs and securely
upsell opportunities across platform subscription tiers.
deploy them using a full lifecycle API management solution.
→ Decide on the business models that ensure lasting value
→ Standardization of APIs to comply with government-led to your organization as well as to the members of your
regulations or to keep up with an industry-wide standard. Successful API products help their consumers succeed
ecosystem. Be prepared to discuss your vision and the
and generate high API adoption. Developers building such
outcome when recruiting co-creators to join.
APIs should be able to rapidly build them using existing
Organizations derive the most value from their API
resources, rather than spending development hours on
investments when they continuously monitor their business In the event that your vision includes the participation of building from scratch.
model, identify new opportunities, and adapt them in their anonymous third-party developers with whom you have
ecosystem. no business relationship, start to think about how you will
market that API as a product. Hackathons are a great way to

24 FIRST, BREAK IT: From APIs to thriving business ecosystems

Empowered with a fresh perspective
of consumer-centric thinking,
organizations should be open to
reimagining value creation in
collaboration with their partners.
D AV ID BE R L IND, E D I T O R-IN- C HIE F, P R O G R A MM A BL E W E B

25
STEP 06 DRIVE API CONSUMPTION

Big Bus
F E AT U R E D C U S T O ME R S T O RY

As with any product in the market, driving adoption is a key

component of a successful API investment. API strategies
should encompass well-planned adoption campaigns
complemented by appropriate customer education and “With MuleSoft, we are building reusable APIs that allow us to integrate with our
marketing. Segmenting developers and running pilot partners faster and focus more on innovation to improve the customer experience.”
programs with individual segments is key to driving a
RICHARD SMITH, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF TECHNOLOGY, BIG BUS
developer relations strategy.

Build out personas for target developer segments and Big Bus is the world’s largest owner-operator of hop-on Utilizing the APIs built in MuleSoft, it takes partners only
focus on messaging to drive API usage. Measure your hop-off open-top sightseeing tours with a global fleet two weeks to connect to the Big Bus booking system.
performance by rigorously monitoring usage, traffic, of 400 buses in 19 cities, turning 5 million tourists into Rather than spending valuable time establishing point-
and other key metrics. In order to drive all the key explorers every year. However, facing an ongoing decline to-point connections, the Big Bus IT team can focus on
components in an API program, organizations need a in traditional “on-street” sales using paper vouchers and innovation, and improving the customer experience.
robust developer portal to be the communication nexus market demand for online sales options, Big Bus had to
for all personas served. dramatically transform its sales strategy and the customer MuleSoft and APIs have paid off for Big Bus, generating a
experience. Opportunities for new sales channels included 26% increase in revenue every year. Big Bus attributes this
Ideally, the full lifecycle API management solution that your web and mobile app access, as well as an extensive impressive ROI to streamlined and strengthened partner
organization adopts should also enable you to engage your partner network, but the company did not have a unified relationships due to easy API integration, user-friendly
partners and developers in branded experiences. In case integration strategy to support all these channels. digital ticketing, and API-enabled direct to system bookings.
your organization needs to run pilot programs to identify
the most responsive consumer segment, educational Big Bus deployed MuleSoft so the IT team could develop Read Big Bus’ customer story
hackathons can also drive API consumption and provide APIs to enable sales across various digital channels,
important feedback towards improving the developer connect with a global network of partners, and deliver a
experience, including the API itself. seamless customer experience.

26 FIRST, BREAK IT: From APIs to thriving business ecosystems

STEP 07 OBSERVE, MEASURE, ITERATE, AND REPEAT expectations, organizations need to stay agile, deliver
faster, and maximize investments. It all starts with APIs:
“Leaders in the organization
Monitor business metrics rigorously and make sure to stay
close with ecosystem members to highlight successes,
should also review the entire
spot anomalies, surface unanticipated opportunities, and → How do you ensure value creation with your APIs? API portfolio on a consistent
iterate as necessary.
→ How do you increase developer and partner basis and pay attention to
historical trends in order to
productivity?
Organizations should continuously look to make
→ How do you maintain a sustainable and thriving API
better evaluate which APIs
improvements by tracking errors, usage metrics, and other
desired strategic outcomes. Leaders in the organization ecosystem?
should also review the entire API portfolio on a consistent to promote or retire.”
basis and pay attention to historical trends in order to
The value your APIs provide to consumers — both inside
better evaluate which APIs to promote or retire.
and outside your organization — becomes critical.

Conclusion
Designing an effective API ecosystem requires a new
way of thinking about partnerships, reimagined business
models and, most importantly, an accelerated pace of
development. To effectively implement API strategies,
organizations need to establish a centralized governance
model to monitor the progress of the ecosystem against
the stated business objectives — ultimately measuring the
impact of the investment to the organization’s bottom
line. With the ever-changing industry and rising customer

27 FIRST, BREAK IT: From APIs to thriving business ecosystems

 API ownership
0 4

for the digital enterprise

C H A P T E R

BY STEPHEN FISHMAN, RVP OF CUSTOMER SUCCESS, MULESOFT.

CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH STANISLAV POKRAEV, PLATFORM ARCHITECT, MULESOFT
AND ADAM DAVIS, PRINCIPAL SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT, MULESOFT

Establishing API ownership upfront is critical for the long-term success of APIs. “Assigning API ownership
Without assigned ownership, quality and consumption of an API will suffer. However,
is critical for the long
assigning API ownership isn’t easy. It can be contentious given complexities regarding
term success of APIs,
business context, accountability, shared systems, dependencies, and more.
but it is not an easy task.
APIs are no different than other enterprise assets that Consider the following as a guide for developing an API
There are complexities
have multiple stakeholders and collaborative decision ownership model:
making — they require a set of aligned organizational regarding business
models, processes, and incentives to drive good
stewardship and decision making.
→ How the API will be used in a business context, context, accountability,
etc., that must be
including the degree to which the API is shared by
multiple stakeholders across the organization.
worked through.”
28
→ The proximity of the API to customer transactions
API ownership model
and experiences.

→ The level of organizational support of DevOps cultural

norms and processes inclusive of “You build it, you run it.” IT owned APIs Shared ownership Business owned APIs
→ Shared system of record → Systems of integration → Systems of engagement

→ IT Operations APIs → Business infrastructure → Monetized products

→ The state of organizational maturity on modernization
→ Infrastructure provisioning APIs (POS, HR, etc.) → Formalized business
topics ranging across business architecture, API
partnerships
productization, debt management, monitoring and
alerting, etc.

A high-level concept map can facilitate and guide the day-

to-day decision making of your teams. The diagram below
can be used as a starting point for discussions in your
organization. The remaining details of this chapter revolve
around this high-level model. This model will act as a
guidepost and should help you make detailed decisions with
a lower degree of confusion and controversy.

Business owned
IT owned

System APIs Process APIs Experience APIs

29 FIRST, BREAK IT: API ownership for the digital enterprise

Embracing shared ownership for → Understanding the needs of potential API consumers. TECHNICAL API OWNERS
shared advantage The main responsibility of the technical API owner is
→ Owning the business scope of the API as well as the
Although it’s critical, most organizations struggle with proper to ensure that the API is implemented, operated, and
API’s SLA.
division of roles and responsibilities. APIs at scale bring an evolved in accordance with the company’s best practices

additional level of complexity for shared ownership given → Communicating the business value of the API. and standards. ​Typical activities performed by technical

their foundational role in enterprise and their dual status as API owners are:
→ Owning and directing the API implementation, release,
“abstract tech-widgets” and “concrete products.”
and evolution strategy.
→ Developing the API and its operations as well as
One thing to note in the lower section of the ownership → Ensuring that the business capabilities of the API are implementing change requests.
model (Figure 1: API ownership model) is how neither fully documented, published, discoverable,
→ Owning the operational-level agreements (OLA) of the
the IT owner nor the business owner are ever fully and consumable.
API and ensuring that the API meets its objectives in
relieved from responsibility. When attempting to develop
→ Ensuring API-consumer facing standards are terms of availability, performance, security, and more.
a generative and collaborative culture, intentionally
articulated and complied with.
choosing models where each party has some form of → Defining, instrumenting, monitoring, acting upon,
intentional “skin in the game,” will allow for alignment and → Defining, monitoring, acting upon, and communicating and communicating technical KPIs for the API, and
partnership to naturally emerge that will ultimately serve business KPIs for the API. connecting KPI performance with potential OLA and
to drive accelerated, predictable delivery at high quality. SLA issues.
→ Identifying, managing, and communicating business-
related issues and enhancement requests. → Ensuring that the technical capabilities of the API
Business vs. technical API owners are fully documented, published, discoverable, and
→ Integrating business-related issues and enhancement
BUSINESS API OWNERS consumable.
requests into a holistic API roadmap and versioning
The main responsibility of a business API owner is to strategy. → Ensuring API-developer and API-operator facing
justify the existence and continuous operation of the API. standards are articulated and complied with.
Typical activities performed by business API owners are:

30 FIRST, BREAK IT: API ownership for the digital enterprise

Assigning API ownership is critical
for the long-term success of APIs,
but it is not an easy task. There are
complexities regarding business
context, accountability, etc., that must
be worked through.
S T E P HE N F I S HM A N, R V P O F C U S T O ME R S U C C E S S , M U L E S O F T

31
→ Identifying, managing, and communicating the business function directly. For example, an API that is used One final ownership consideration is around succession
dependencies of the API on the underlying APIs/ to authenticate users is very important, but not directly planning. It is inevitable that people will change roles or
systems. related to a business function. Such APIs might not have a jobs at some point, including your technical and business
business API owner, but they need a technical API owner API owners. Continuity in ownership is important and
→ Identifying, managing, and communicating technical
to ensure that the required functionality is available to something that needs to be planned for. Cultivating a
issues and enhancement requests.
other APIs/applications. bench of future owners can help you ensure the sustained
→ Integrating technical issues/enhancement requests success of your APIs.
into a holistic API roadmap and versioning strategy. Depending on the API’s importance, what scenarios and
populations the API supports, or available talent and
organizational people strategies, some API owners can API ownership and governance by layer
ADDITIONAL OWNERSHIP CONSIDERATIONS function in both business and technical ownership. In this section we will discuss API ownership and governance
The first candidate for business API owner is the person Shared ownership that is mapped to value streams at each layer of the API-led connectivity framework (Figure
who owns the change and release cycle of the business and/or capability models can be problematic in certain 2: API-led connectivity): System APIs, Process APIs, and
service realized by the API. Outside of experimentation organizational cultures – while collaborative ownership Experience APIs. Before diving into API ownership and
and innovation contexts, building APIs without a roadmap models generally have the highest potential for smooth governance, it is helpful to understand API-led connectivity
or any real demand for consumption does not add value delivery and operation, aligning to existing cultural norms and the different API layers within this framework, as they
and is not good practice. is the higher order principle in most circumstances. play a critical role in the API ownership model.

Preferably, business and IT leaders should act in Assuming that the enterprise has adopted DevOps norms
partnership regarding API ownership — the business should to some degree, the team that builds the API should What is API-led connectivity?
drive the API strategy and roadmap in a marketplace stay with the API. Ideally, the technical owner of an API API-led connectivity is a methodical way to connect data to
context, and IT should drive the technical aspects, such as should be from the team that has built the API. If there applications through reusable and purposeful APIs. These
architectural and operational standards, implementation of is no DevOps culture (an API is built by one team and APIs are developed to play a specific role – unlocking data
releases and changes, incident management, etc. operated by another team), a technical API owner should from systems, composing data into processes, or delivering
It’s important to note that some APIs do not support a be assigned when the API needs to change. an experience.

32 FIRST, BREAK IT: API ownership for the digital enterprise

What are System APIs? API-led connectivity
System APIs provide a means for insulating the API
consumers from the complexity or changes to the
underlying systems. Once built, many consumers can
access data without any need to know the details of the
underlying systems. System APIs are typically fine-grained,
business process-independent, and highly reusable.

Experience Mobile API Web app API

APIs
What are Process APIs?

APIs & integrations reusable building blocks

Process APIs provide a means of combining data and
orchestrating multiple System APIs for a specific business
purpose (e.g., 360-degree view on customer, order Order
status
Process
fulfillment, etc.). They are often used to construct a business APIs
Shipment status Order history

entity which attributes are managed in multiple systems Customers

of records (e.g., SAP, Salesforce, etc.) by different business

functions (CRM, Customer Support, etc.).

System Toll UPS SAP Salesforce

Orders
APIs
What are Experience APIs? shipments shipments customers customers

Experience APIs are similar to Process APIs in that they

composite the content, features, and functionality of
several other APIs. However, unlike Process APIs, SAP
Experience APIs are more specifically tied to a unique

33 FIRST, BREAK IT: API ownership for the digital enterprise

 business context, and they project data formats, interaction data classification overlaid with the role designation of the with broad concerns on resiliency, security, scalability,
timings, or protocols (rather than process or create them) requestor. These rules are driven by enterprise security future flexibility, and other highly technical aspects.
into a specific channel and context. and data governance policies in the enterprise and vary
widely across industries. IMPLICATIONS OF ASSIGNING SYSTEM API OWNERS
Assigning business and technical ownership of shared
System APIs ownership and governance model The best person to define the API access policies is the one
resources deep within an enterprise application
BUSINESS VERSUS TECHNICAL OWNERS who understands the data being requested and/or acted
infrastructure has many pitfalls and tradeoffs, regardless of
upon and how the data will be used across the enterprise.
Business ownership of a System API should attempt to the decision.
follow capability and/or value-stream ownership if possible.
Defining the business ownership of an API based on
Technical ownership of a System API should follow system/ In assigning ownership of a System API, one should consider
the ownership of the system where the data is can be
platform ownership. the near- and long-term goals for the shared System API,
problematic given that many system owners are typically
which makes the decision simpler. For example, a shared
only responsible for the technical aspects of the system
The quality of an API is tightly coupled with the quality of system that has little need for enhancement but must be
along with the system functions at the core (e.g., system
the data it interacts with and upon. A well-designed API for available at all times can be assigned to a technical staff
availability, system performance, core use cases, etc.)
a backend system simultaneously elevates both the level member that has a reasonable set of experience that aligns
rather than the enterprise use cases for leveraging that
of system control and the ease of system accessibility. In with the system’s capabilities. Conversely, a shared system
system at the edge (e.g., customized processes for unique
most cases, the data access rules are defined based on that is used for launching new products and ventures can
LOB requirements, workarounds and integrations for
optimize for near-term objectives with a formal business
unique customer requirements, etc.).
owner that has reasonable grounding in technical concerns.

“The quality of an API is In contrast, defining business ownership of a shared API

Another top consideration is that shared resources require
shared leadership. Developing steering committees for
tightly coupled with the has similar concerns given that many business owners
shared infrastructure can achieve superior results

quality of the data it interacts

are typically only responsible and qualified for the
to single ownership through collaboration and diversity
management of new feature delivery rather than the
in experience.
with and upon.” operational discipline required for enterprise platforms

34 FIRST, BREAK IT: API ownership for the digital enterprise

Process APIs ownership and governance model Process API ownership concerns can be more complex Developing steering committees for shared infrastructure
than System APIs given that the number of system can achieve superior results to single ownership through
BUSINESS VERSUS TECHNICAL OWNERS
interfaces is greater than that of a typical System API, collaboration and diversity in experience.
Business ownership of a Process API should attempt to which only integrates with a singular system of record.
follow capability and/or value-stream ownership if possible, Additionally, composite services have more dependencies
with secondary methods to derive ownership in regard to and therefore can result in greater difficulty managing the Experience APIs ownership and
shared systems, products, and services. Technical ownership quality of service. governance model
of a Process API should follow system/platform ownership.
BUSINESS VERSUS TECHNICAL OWNERS
If the Process API in question spans multiple platforms, Since Process APIs are closer to concrete business
Business ownership of an Experience API should attempt
ownership can be derived from several methods (e.g., which transactions, assigning technology staff members to play
to follow capability and/or value-stream ownership if
system or platform has the highest likelihood of impact the role of the business owner becomes less feasible
possible. This designation should align with the business
from changes, designate an owner from an integration and more problematic. Conversely, given the technical
owner of the relationship with the consumer/partner.
services organizational unit, etc.) complexity of composite services that are still abstracted
Technical ownership of an Experience API should follow
away from actual experiences, defining a singular owner
one of the following paradigms based on existing norms
“Keep in mind Experience APIs also has its own issues and tradeoffs.
within the enterprise hosting the API:

are built to provide a way

Implications of assigning Process API owners
for interactive application
→ Presentation tier ownership – assigning technical
ownership to staff members who are recognized
Noting the difficulties of composite business services
developers to rapidly provision that are abstracted away from singular experiences,
experts in both presentation tier technologies and the

data into front-end applications

existing touchpoints at the browser or native application
organizations should consider shared infrastructure and
that consumes the Experience API.
leadership based on potential when assigning ownership
that are used by customers, of Process APIs. → System/platform ownership – assigning technical
partners, and employees.” ownership to staff members who are recognized

35 FIRST, BREAK IT: API ownership for the digital enterprise

 experts in a business facing platform that serves as a Implications of assigning Experience performance, compatibility, caching, etc.). As these
source for the majority of data/functionality manifested API owners sorts of concerns can get pushed to backlogs routinely,
by the API. the technical owner needs a strong understanding and
The context of use and business implications from an
sophisticated communication skills to give these topics
→ Process API ownership – The owner of a Process API Experience API are the driving factors for assigning
appropriate attention.
could be the owner of the Experience API if the same business owners to Experience APIs. From a technical
business service/product team is also responsible for ownership perspective, organizations assigning ownership
the relationship with the consumers of that business of Experience APIs should consider API context as well as Conclusion
service/product. communication skills.
Assigning API ownership is critical for the long-term success
of APIs, but it is not an easy task. There are complexities
Technical owners of Experience APIs should be leaders
Keep in mind Experience APIs are built to provide a regarding business context, accountability, etc., that must
who are closest to the context of the APIs actual use. This
way for interactive application developers to rapidly be worked through. Just like any other enterprise asset with
context is key for driving roadmap alignment with the
provision data into front-end applications that are used by multiple stakeholders, it requires alignment to drive proper
business owner. The technical owner of Experience APIs
customers, partners, and employees. As such, Experience stewardship and decision making.
needs to be fluent in the aspects of API development
APIs follow a “design-first” approach – that is, the API
beyond functional completeness (e.g., security,
contract is specified before the actual implementation This task can be made easier by understanding API-led

“When you are able to align

of the API and is driven by the consumers of the APIs in connectivity and leveraging the API ownership model.
collaboration with User Experience professionals who This model will help your organization reduce confusion
specify how online interactions should be implemented and develop the right and controversy, and make better decisions. When you

partnership with stakeholders,

from a design perspective. are able to align and develop the right partnership with
stakeholders, you will be able to drive accelerated project
you will be able to drive delivery at a higher quality.

accelerated project delivery

at a higher quality.”
36 FIRST, BREAK IT: API ownership for the digital enterprise
 Unlock innovation
0 5

with API-led connectivity

C H A P T E R

ROSS MASON, FOUNDER, MULESOFT

Business as we know it is under enormous pressure, and nowhere is that pressure “Customers expect
more pronounced than in the IT organization. The customer experience has
personalized service.
completely changed. The expectation of what they should get from their vendors has
And if they don’t get
changed as well. Everything needs to be dynamic, always-on, and always-connected.
what they want, they will
Customers expect personalized service. And if they don’t financial services, retail, and healthcare, no company is
move on and take their
get what they want, they will move on and take their too big to have the rug pulled from under it. It is no longer
business with them. about the big eating the small, it is now about the fast business with them.”
eating the slow.
But that isn’t the only pressure point on modern
businesses. The barrier of entry into almost every market In response to these pressures, businesses are turning to
has evaporated. With major disruptions happening in technology to help them move faster and deliver more

37
to their customers. There is an increased need to bring in cost of operation, both in terms of money and time, lean public APIs, and open source components to build
best-of-breed cloud applications; for mobile applications and efficient. IT has to deliver the capability to support companies and products at an alarming rate. This
that drive better customer experiences and better, faster these new channels to the business, and to do so must composable mode of operation is normal for startups.
ways of connecting with partners and suppliers; and for become expert at extracting value from all its assets It’s very abnormal right now for most enterprises. This is
agile and adaptable processes that help employees be locked up in dinosaur systems: those mainframes, legacy the competitive landscape that you’re dealing with. And
more productive. Every function in your organization applications, databases, and big data stores. In and of this kind of digital Darwinism is extraordinarily unkind to
is lured by purpose-built cloud applications that help itself, that’s all very hard to connect, but it’s been made enterprises who aren’t prepared to deal with the realities
them do their jobs more efficiently. The role of IT and even more difficult to connect with the advent of the of the new world they live in. Increasingly we are seeing
integration today is, “How do I get these connected cloud. IT can’t afford to get bogged down in technical winner-take-all markets consolidating revenue at the top
quickly without making a mess? How do I move debt trying to deliver everything to every area of the of every category. As Charles Darwin famously said, “It is
information between these different systems to better run business. Instead, it needs to enable and empower the not the strongest of the species that survives, it is the one
my business?” business to autonomously deliver their own projects while that is most adaptable to change.”
retaining governance and control over mission-critical
The reality for every enterprise is that the centralized IT data. Modern connectivity isn’t about creating integrations Every industry in the world is affected by the digital
model is no longer working. Technology is no longer just to piece together new projects; it’s actually about how revolution, and every company is looking to figure out how
a central concern. Software is used in every corner of the you take that value — those assets buried inside your data they can cope with the change and take advantage of the
business to perform all kinds of functions. This is putting center — and surface it to the front of the business to opportunities it affords.
tremendous stress on IT as the business makes more enable the application developers to create apps, reports,
and more requests to get its new application to work dashboards, and business processes. How do you connect
with other applications and data sources. This creates a those assets to your audiences: your customers, your Get great at change
massive IT delivery gap. partners, and your employees? One of the big changes that every CIO has to accept is
that IT is no longer just about keeping the lights on and
IT has to figure out how to deliver much more to the If that wasn’t enough, those startups that are, or about keeping the network running. The role of IT is not about
business without investing a lot more — and always to, eat away at your core value propositions. They have delivering projects for the business — it needs to be an
ensuring a positive ROI. IT has to devise ways to make its become very good at pulling together cloud applications, enabler to the business and help create value. That means

38 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

The role of IT is not about delivering
projects for the business — it needs
to be an enabler to the business and
help create value.
R O S S M A S O N, F O U ND E R , M U L E S O F T

39
IT needs to deliver platforms and capabilities to allow enterprise asset; they’re another source of information business can use to improve the way they work means
the business to self-serve data and resources. A business that must be built into your IT landscape. The way you IT can no longer own all the applications. This is dubbed
analyst should be able to find real-time data sets in a data connect to those customers, partners, and employees “shadow IT” — applications procured outside of central
marketplace and an application developer should be able is through applications. By applications, I mean web IT — and it’s a natural progression as every corner of
to provision a new application environment in seconds. applications and mobile applications — even IoT is your business needs these applications to work more
That’s a different way of thinking about what many CIOs driving new experiences for consumers with connected efficiently. However, IT needs to own and govern the data
do today. devices. The IT organization needs to focus on providing that powers all those applications because they are still
the building blocks for the business to compose the on the hook for data security and governance. If there is
How can an IT executive actually shift that mindset applications, reports, analytics, and digital products to a data breach at an organization who does the CEO hold
from project to project delivery inside your organization compete in this digital era. accountable? Yes, IT is still accountable for all data even
to opening up the assets and capabilities of your if the application that was compromised was built or
organization? You can do that with an approach we call The business is going to build these applications with or procured without IT.
API-led connectivity. without IT. The role of IT is to give the business consumers
capabilities — reusable APIs — to get access to enterprise Rather than owning every piece of the application stack,
In the modern world, everything is digital and everything assets the right way. The problem with the business going how does IT unlock the value of that data so that other
needs to connect. API-led connectivity is an approach to around IT is that it creates major downstream problems people in the organization can build those applications
organizing your business from a technology perspective. that strangle agility because systems become tightly without compromising security? If you look at who can
Connectivity is no longer about just integrating back- bound together and cannot be changed without months actually build apps in the enterprise today, you have
office systems. You need to find ways to unlock the value of work. designers, business developers, mobile app developers,
of your data and assets to allow the business to actually and development partners — they’re all building new
take part in creating the new digital experiences that applications and new experiences for consumers with
it so desperately wants to drive to their consumers. Your IT can’t own everything or without IT involvement. IT must think more about
technology assets exist everywhere — in files, databases, Another major challenge is the sheer number of enterprise governing the data and providing self-serve access to
applications, warehouses, big data stores in the cloud applications due to the explosion of SaaS applications, that data.
and on-premises. Cloud applications are just another mobile applications, and IoT. The number of things the

40 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

To do that, your organization needs to be composable — and innovate using this information. This connectedness
Some of the APIs involved in
meaning individuals and teams need to be allowed to self- creates a non-linear relationship between the amount of
serve, grab pieces of information and bits of functionality digital information we produce and its impact on society. ordering rideshare from a
that they need to build new experiences. Your IT today voice assistant
is like a reliable bicycle. It works, it gets you from A to B, As long as there has been digital information, there has
and it’s not broken. But the rest of the business wants been a desire to share it. In the early days of software
the freedom and ability to create different experiences applications, that meant extracting, combining, and
for their consumers, faster. They want to evolve how processing data through scheduled batch jobs. As personal
integration assets are used inside the organization. computers became more powerful and connected
through local networks, client-server computing provided
What you need is this: your system and business a new means of sharing information in real-time. Not only
capabilities and services accessible as composable APIs could you now share data, but you could also share the
that you can pull together in different ways to experiment, application functionality used to process it, leading to the
evolve, and drive different types of outcomes for you and concept of “application integration.” The possibilities
your customers. The way we propose doing this is with for application integration exploded with the rise of
API

API-led connectivity. the World Wide Web, through both its global ubiquity as
well as the protocols and technologies that enabled its
interoperability. The web began as a collection of static API

Future-proof your business with API-led homepages but has evolved to become the backbone of
connectivity our digital society. Today, we can listen to personalized API

We live in a digital world. The ways we learn, playlists on smart home speakers, plan fitness regimens
communicate, and work are increasingly digital. What through health data telemetry, shop, and move money
powers this new world isn’t just the digital information from our phones. All of this is possible due to a simple
itself — the real power of the digital world comes from application integration mechanism: the web API.
the connectedness that allows us to interact, integrate,

41 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

In technical terms, a web API (or simply “API”) is nothing well. Driven by a need to integrate data and functionality
Evolution of application
more than a network interface to software functionality within their own walls, many companies appropriated
that uses the protocols of the web (e.g., HTTP, JSON, web API protocols like XML and SOAP as a means for integration approaches in
XML). However, in business terms, this integration tool connecting applications. The first wave of post-web the enterprise
allows organizations to open up their core capabilities enterprise application integration, known as Service-
for consumption by other organizations, through new Oriented Architecture (SOA), aimed to provide shared
distribution channels, and on new digital devices. The services for the enterprise. Although SOA’s focus on
API-led approach revolutionized the web (web 2.0, social reusability was a step forward, it delivered limited
networks, mobile, etc.). Amazon and eBay used APIs to returns since implementation focused almost exclusively
sell goods on third-party websites. Facebook and Twitter on web technology. We are now in the second wave,

LC
used APIs for likes and shares. And the mobile app where leading organizations are taking a new integration Business capabilities,

A
consumer first,
economy was founded on the data and services provided approach — API-led connectivity — that still uses the API products

LC
Business capabilities,
through APIs. Companies like Twilio and Stripe have technology of web APIs, but adopts the best practices of

A
consumer first,
achieved unicorn status with APIs as their primary leading web API organizations as well. API products

commercial products. APIs are so foundational to the

A A
Enterprise shared services,

O O
current digital economy that one cannot imagine a

S
standards-based
company like Lyft — who uses APIs from Google Maps, From application integration to
API-led connectivity Enterprise shared services,

S
Twilio, Stripe, and AWS — getting past the concept stage standards-based
without them. Companies like eBay and Twilio learned early on that Point-to-point, project-by

I
A
E
project
an API is only as valuable as its adoption. To drive
Point-to-point, project-by

I
A
usage, they introduced a consumer-first mentality and

E
Some of the APIs involved in ordering focused on making their API products as useful, usable,
project
ALC = API-led connectivity
rideshare from a voice assistant and understandable as possible to ensure consuming SOA = Service-oriented architecture
EAI = Enterprise application integration
Influenced by this cross-organizational web revolution, developers could work rapidly without any hand-holding. ALC = API-led connectivity
SOA = Service-oriented architecture
application integration was taking off inside enterprises as Amazon recognized the power of decoupling their internal EAI = Enterprise application integration

42 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

product teams through APIs, something Jeff Bezos Evolution of application integration The outcome of API-led connectivity is an
codified in a legendary memo. The API-led connectivity approaches in the enterprise application network
approach synthesizes these practices with lessons
Some key practices are necessary to deliver consumer- Enterprises that employ API-led connectivity experience
learned from previous generations of enterprise
focused APIs. Organizationally, APIs are often owned and numerous benefits by exposing their business capabilities
application integration.
managed by cross-functional product teams that align through APIs. With previous approaches to application
with specific business capabilities or broader business integration, these organizations might achieve a high
Early application integration focused on connecting
domains. These teams include business and technology degree of interconnectedness between their systems, but
application and data endpoints for a particular project
roles — such as API product manager or lead API engineer identifying the endpoints in an exchange could be difficult,
or purpose. SOA introduced the notion of application
— who own the consumer relationships, the API product let alone reusing them. API-led connectivity’s emphasis on
endpoints that could be reused for multiple purposes.
roadmap, and the solution architecture. Teams should self-service APIs makes it much easier to discover business
API-led connectivity builds on this approach by exposing
function as autonomously as possible, mimicking the capabilities. The APIs, in aggregate, form an “application
an organization’s core business capabilities as long-
Amazon structure. This setup has an affinity with the network” of services to be consumed, regardless of their
living API products with defined business models.
DevOps and microservice architecture movements that underlying implementations. This application network
API-led connectivity puts the consumer first. APIs are
are also sweeping enterprise IT. However, most API-led also provides a means for governing highly-distributed
designed “outside in,” with a primary focus on the needs
connectivity organizations balance the development of net enterprise software systems through consistent monitoring,
of consumers despite constraints and biases of the
new microservices with the API enablement of existing security, and other control mechanisms. Its value increases
provider. Furthermore, API-led connectivity organizations
application assets. Legacy application functionality and as more APIs and more consumers are added.
treat developers of API-consuming applications as first-
data exposed as base level “system APIs” are composed
class customers whose user experience — or in this case
into core API products (sometimes called “process APIs”) API-led connectivity enables companies to create an
developer experience — is a major product consideration.
made to be consumed in multiple business contexts. application network that serves as a platform for their digital
Further API abstractions are added as needed to serve the transformation. Although success on this path towards an
needs of new consumer contexts (for example, “experience application network is incremental and ongoing, you can
APIs” intended for a specific consumer channel like mobile), still use API-led connectivity to help navigate towards your
in order to drive API usage and maximize business value. digital destination.

43 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

API-led connectivity not only depends on three categories
API-led connectivity leads to an application network
of reusable APIs to compose new services and capabilities
but also decentralizes and democratizes access to enterprise
data. Central IT produces reusable assets, and in the process
unlocks key systems, including legacy applications, data
sources, and SaaS apps. Central IT and other teams can
then reuse these API assets and compose process level
information. Then, app developers can discover and self-
serve on all of these reusable assets, creating the experience
layer of APIs and ultimately the end-applications. This API-
led approach to integration increases agility, speed,
and productivity.
System connections Inventory
and integrations

The need for API-led connectivity

API-led connectivity is an important integration strategy
because the technologies that enterprises are using to
engage with their customers, employees, and partners
have changed dramatically. The convergence of
technologies like IoT, SaaS, big data, social, mobile, and Shipping and fulfillment Customer experience
APIs are providing powerful new tools to allow businesses
to do more, unlock new revenue streams, understand
their customers better, and innovate faster than ever
before. But to do so, they need to integrate these new
technologies with APIs. Traditionally, these integrations

44 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

have been done via point-to-point connections, done in
The traditional IT operating model can’t keep pace
an ad hoc way whenever a project requires. This leads to
complicated and brittle systems that are prone to failure with today’s demands
and require a great deal of IT’s time and resources to
maintain spaghetti code.

Moreover, the frequency with which these new systems

change has also increased. For example, whereas the
database schema of a core banking system may change
only on an annual basis, the requirements of the online
and mobile banking applications connecting to those
Business demands
systems may change weekly, daily, or even hourly. The
speed of these changes cannot be accommodated by AI
traditional point-to-point integration methods. Another Delivery
approach is required — API-led connectivity. IoT Gap
Demands
on IT
Mobile
Closing the IT delivery gap with API-led
connectivity SaaS
API-led connectivity has an important role to play. This is
because IT is often tasked with implementing new technologies Cloud
and making the necessary changes, as well as maintaining
legacy systems and their connections to other systems. The
requests they must fulfill is ever-growing, even as their resources Delivery capacity
stay constant. Eventually, what results is an IT delivery gap.

Time
45 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity
The number of new projects necessary to implement
Illustrative architecture: Mortgage lending transformation — the
today’s technology needs — measured against IT’s capacity
to deliver them — is spiralling ever upward. And as the emergence of an application network and a foundation of reuse
technology requirements of the business continue to grow
exponentially, IT’s resources only grow in a linear way, no
matter how many resources a business can throw at the
problem. According to our 2020 Connectivity Benchmark
Report, most IT decision-makers are expecting their
budgets to either stay the same or increase very slightly, so
unlimited resources are not an option. That is why API-led Experience Customer Associate Reporting/analytics Servicing/support Payment Default
APIs experience experience experience experience
connectivity is a better integration strategy.
Channels

A layered approach to API-led connectivity

Process
API-led connectivity provides an approach for connecting APIs
Origin
loan
Read
borrower
Get borrower
loan history
Retrieve loan
account details
Search loan
documents
Get loan
account balance
Get loan
status
Get credit
report

and exposing assets. With this approach, rather than Processes

connecting things point-to-point, every asset becomes
a managed API — a modern API, which makes it
discoverable through self-service without losing control.
System Credit Documents esignatures Loans Borrower Borrower
APIs score web service data

The APIs used in an API-led approach to connectivity fall

Data Oracle MySQL IBM
into three categories: DB DB DB2

→ System layer: Underlying all IT architectures are core

46 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

 systems of record (e.g. ERP, key customer and billing the same data but in a variety of different forms. For
systems, proprietary databases, etc). Often these example, a retail branch POS system, eCommerce
systems are not easily accessible due to connectivity site, and mobile shopping application may all want
concerns. System APIs provide a means of hiding to access the same customer information fields, but
that complexity from the user but allowing them each will require that information in very different Web app API
to access underlying systems of record. These APIs formats. Experience APIs are the means by which data
expose system data, often in a canonical format, while can be reconfigured so that it is most easily consumed
providing downstream insulation from any interface by its intended audience, all from a common data
changes or rationalization of those systems. These source, rather than setting up separate point-to-point
APIs will also change more infrequently and will be integrations for each channel.
governed by central IT given the importance of the Order Order
status history
underlying systems.
By building and organizing your APIs this way, and then

→ Process layer: The underlying business processes making them discoverable and available for the business

that interact and shape data should be strictly to self-serve, API-led connectivity has made your business
composable, allowing teams throughout the business to Aggregated
encapsulated independently of the source systems
customer
compose, recompose, and adapt these APIs to address
from which the data originates, as well as the target data
channels through which that data is to be delivered. the changing needs of the business.

For example, in a purchase order process, there

is some logic that is common across products,
How Wells Fargo built a digital platform with
geographies, and retail channels that can and should
be distilled into a single service.
API-led connectivity SAP
Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in the world,
→ Experience layer: Data are now consumed across a employs roughly 273,000 team members and serves over
broad set of channels, each of which wants access to 70 million customers across 8,500 locations and 13,000

47 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

 ATMs. The bank is driving a digital transformation journey Implementing API-led connectivity in
to deliver a unified customer experience. your business
API-led connectivity is a critical element to closing the IT Mobile API Mobile API
As part of this journey they built Wells Fargo Gateway,
delivery gap. In a traditional point-to-point integration
a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that provides
approach, one might wish to develop a web app to provide
key services — such as account servicing, payments,
real-time order status and order history for sales teams to
and foreign exchange — through exposing APIs to Wells
engage with customers. For this example, let’s assume you
Fargo’s partners and developers. As the foundation for
have customer data in SAP and in Salesforce — inventory
this digital platform, their API-led connectivity approach Order Order Order Order
data in SAP and order data in an e-commerce system. status history status history
is enabling reuse of the same APIs across multiple
channels. This reuse allows more rapid project delivery —
What might be commonly done at this point is that your
IT team might aggregate customer data by wiring together
“API-led connectivity is a critical customer data from both systems — with custom code.

element to closing the IT

Then, the aggregated customer data is further combined
with order data in the e-commerce system to produce both Aggregated
customer
Aggregated
customer

delivery gap.”
data data
the order status and order history data — with more custom
code. Now, these two sources of data are hooked into a
Web app API which can be leveraged by the web app.
increasing the speed of IT project delivery from months
to just weeks. “The FX API, which we are offering to our SAP
This project might be considered a success; it was
partners, has been a game-changer,” says Sid Vyas, CTO in
launched on time, on budget, and has the correct
Capital Markets and Investment Banking Technology, “they
functionality. But then the sales team, who are often
[partners] can seamlessly integrate their applications or
on the road, are demanding that this functionality be
their systems with our platform.”
available on their mobile phones. So, the IT team is now

48 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

tasked with building a mobile app. But the developers
API-led connectivity
building the app aren’t able to use any of the work that
was done for previous projects. So they have to redo all
the work, which in itself is not a great outcome.

Even though the developers know this is likely a short-

sighted approach, they justify it given the typically intense
time pressures. If there are consultants involved, the
Experience Mobile API Web app API
problem gets worse, as they have little incentive to think
APIs

APIs & integrations reusable building blocks

about the long term. Over time, changes become very
expensive or near impossible to make. But as change is
constant, agility is now made very difficult. As you can
see below, the familiar “spaghetti code” pattern begins to
Order
status
take shape. Process
Shipment status Order history
APIs
Customers
With an API-led connectivity approach, however, when
teams are tasked with building a new mobile app, there
are now reusable assets to build from, created from
Systems and Process APIs, eliminating all of the work System Toll UPS SAP Salesforce
Orders
needed to build them. APIs shipments shipments customers customers

Creating the mobile app, therefore, is a matter of plugging

SAP
together the various systems. And it is now much easier
to innovate and add new services — in this case, adding
shipment status information — in much the same way

49 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

order status and order history was accessed. This saves
time, money, and resources and ensures projects can be
It enables you to move fast on your first project, but
then actually accelerates further from your second
“The API-led connectivity
completed more quickly. project onwards, due to reusable assets and a built-up approach allows developers
As you can see, API-led connectivity uses some of the
organizational capability; API-led connectivity liberates
resources, allowing you to innovate and to move quickly.
throughout the business to
principles of SOA, but this approach is an evolution from compose and recompose
SOA in the direction of self-service consumption of
reusable assets. The API-led connectivity approach allows
reusable services to build
developers throughout the business to compose and projects they deem necessary,
rather than the top-down,
recompose reusable services to build projects they deem
necessary, rather than the top-down, heavyweight dictates
of traditional SOA approaches. The method in which these heavyweight dictates of
traditional SOA approaches.”
assets are used in an organization is as important to the
API-led connectivity approach as the assets themselves.

The business value of API-led connectivity

An API-led connectivity approach to delivering IT
projects ensures you are not only on time and budget
with your first projects, but you have built the reusable
assets that will save your company time and money,
created an infrastructure which is designed for change,
built-in visibility, compliance and governance and, most
importantly, met the needs of the business, which is long-
term sustained agility.

50 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

Conclusion
ROSS MASON, FOUNDER, MULESOFT

We have experienced seismic shifts in the business landscape and things don’t look like “CIOs, you now play a critical
they will be settling anytime soon. In today’s environment, organizations must accelerate
business role and must partner
their digital transformation not only to survive, but ultimately thrive in the future.
closely with CEOs to drive
CIOs, you now play a critical business role and must I will leave you with two parting thoughts on your strategic initiatives and growth
opportunities.”
partner closely with CEOs to drive strategic initiatives and journey to transform your business. The first; take every
growth opportunities. You must lead your organization in opportunity to spend time with your customer. Whether
building a future-proof IT infrastructure that will enable you are a developer writing the software or the marketer
the business to adapt and innovate with speed. telling the story, you must have a firm grip on the problem
you are solving from the point of view of your customer.
How can you do this? By taking an API-led approach The second; don’t leave your plan for the future of your
to connectivity so you can unlock data and business business until tomorrow. Start mapping your strategy to
capabilities across your organization. becoming a leader in the digital economy today; you can
iterate a plan, you can’t start executing sooner.

51 FIRST, BREAK IT: Unlock innovation with API-led connectivity

MULESOFT, A SALESFORCE COMPANY

MuleSoft, the world’s #1 integration and API platform, makes it easy to connect data from any
system—no matter where it resides—to create connected experiences, faster. Thousands of
organizations across industries rely on MuleSoft to realize speed, agility and innovation at
scale. For more information, visit mulesoft.com

MuleSoft is a registered trademark of MuleSoft, LLC, a Salesforce company. All other marks
are those of respective owners.