Digital transformation services are gaining momentum across all major industries as businesses strive to modernize their enterprise systems and build resilience for the future. With cloud computing making steady inroads into mainstream business models, the demand for cloud API development has increased substantially. Although many enterprises use consoles and portals to gain control over their cloud infrastructure, APIs are more suitable for public cloud environments.
Understandably, cloud adoption is a quintessential part of the digital transformation strategy and APIs play a crucial role in providing seamless access to cloud services. In this blog post, we shed light on the importance of cloud API development and how it helps achieve digital transformation.
Also, Read How Manufacturing Companies Can Benefit From Cloud ERP
What Are Cloud APIs?
Cloud API refers to the software interface that facilitates seamless connectivity and communication between different cloud services. The concept is quite similar to normal APIs where one computer program makes its data available to other programs. Also, cloud APIs can be cross-platform or vendor-specific and enable end-users to access a cloud provider’s application or services.
At the same time, developers can build custom cloud APIs to provide access to various cloud services through web-based communication. Cloud API development involves writing a code that would call the cloud provider’s API and provide an appropriate response as per the predefined parameters. Furthermore, it would examine and validate the response to perform the desired action.
Also, Read Overcoming Business Scalability Challenges Using Cloud ERP
Types of Cloud APIs
From the above discussion, it is quite evident that cloud APIs are similar to our mainstream REST and SOAP APIs with slightly different use cases. Nevertheless, the only difference is that here we fetch data from cloud service providers and make it available to third-party apps via web communications. That being said, cloud APIs are broadly classified into four main categories, in-line with the four main types of cloud services. In the following section, we shall explore these four main types of cloud APIs and their significance from the standpoint of digital transformation.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) APIs
These are application-level APIs that facilitate seamless integration between the cloud and the application layer along with the underlying IT infrastructure. ERP and CRM applications are apt examples of software models where we use SaaS APIs to render a fully-integrated enterprise software infrastructure.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) APIs
Platform-as-a-Service is a popular cloud service model where customers get a platform to build, run, and manage software applications without having to maintain the underlying infrastructure. In this context, PaaS APIs are service-level APIs that provide access to various cloud services without any platform-specific constraints or infrastructure complexities.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) APIs
IaaS is a cloud service that focuses on providing on-demand computing resources, storage capacity, and networking services on a pay-as-you-go basis. That said, IaaS APIs are required to gain control over the specific cloud resources while also managing their distribution. These are infrastructure-level APIs that mainly help with the provisioning and de-provisioning of various cloud services. Moreover, IaaS APIs commonly find their use in network configuration management, workload management, and similar business applications.
Cross-Platform APIs
As of today, most enterprises use hybrid cloud environments with multiple cloud service models combined. For instance, they might be using a SaaS-based ERP system with an integrated on-premise HRM module. To bridge the gap between these two disparate software systems, we require cross-platform APIs. So we see that cross-platform APIs allow end-users to access computing resources from any type of software environment regardless of the underlying platform.
You may also like to read The Multi-Cloud Strategy For Legacy Application Modernization
The Final Words
APIs are definitely one of the most useful programming solutions we have to achieve various application functionalities while saving significant development time and effort. Here we have discussed the four main types of cloud APIs that are conducive to driving digital transformation in 2022. Therefore, it is crucial to select the right cloud APIs to scrupulously interconnect different application components and provide seamless access to cloud services. In addition to saving time and effort, cloud API development brings significant cost savings to enterprises. All things considered, cloud API development and implementation is a quick, efficient, and cost-effective way to achieve digital transformation while delivering maximum value to enterprises.
Why Choose Oodles ERP For Enterprise-grade API Development?
We are amongst the prominent ERP software companies that its forte in providing complete enterprise software solutions for varying business needs. We provide end-to-end SaaS ERP solutions and custom API development services to solve complex business problems with a value-driven approach. Our seasoned developers specialize in using the latest tech stack, agile methodology, and next-gen technologies to build scalable cloud solutions for the industry-specific needs of our clients. Our cloud API development services enable enterprises to overcome their diverse business challenges, streamline operations and achieve higher operational efficiency while driving significant cost savings. For project-related queries, drop us a line at [email protected].
