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What The API Actually Is Without The Tech Lingo: Taija

The document discusses how businesses needed to find an automated way to access data across different departments and companies, leading to the idea of API-first systems. It then provides an analogy that compares an API to a restaurant's menu and waiter, explaining what an API is without technical jargon.

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Shreya
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7 views1 page

What The API Actually Is Without The Tech Lingo: Taija

The document discusses how businesses needed to find an automated way to access data across different departments and companies, leading to the idea of API-first systems. It then provides an analogy that compares an API to a restaurant's menu and waiter, explaining what an API is without technical jargon.

Uploaded by

Shreya
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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When the number of data collection channels spanned over several departments and

even external companies, databases and their operators became a bottleneck.


Businesses needed to find an automated way of accessing data stores.

This is how the idea of API-first systems originated.

What The API Actually Is Without The Tech


Lingo #
API-first systems, today commonly shortened as API
(Application Programmable Interface), are the applications which ensure that other
systems can access their data in a unified and secure way.

Without a computer science grade, Application Programmable Interface doesn’t really


ring a bell. Let’s have a look at a more tangible explanation.

One of the best analogies I’ve found in the web so far has been written by Taija:

“If you go to a restaurant as a customer, you are not

allowed to enter the kitchen. You need to know what is

available. For that, you have the menu. After looking at

the menu, you make an order to a waiter, who passes it

to the kitchen and who will then deliver what you have

asked for. The waiter can only deliver what the kitchen

can provide.

How does that relate to an API? The waiter is the API.

You are someone who is asking for service. In other words,

you are an API customer or consumer. The menu is the

documentation which explains what you can ask for from

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