At API World, there were a few predominant topics that I noticed: API design, API management, and API security.

Since these are what many organizations struggle with, it was no surprise many people were talking about these topics and many companies showcasing offerings to ease the overhead of creating and managing APIs.

Here’s what did surprise me and why.

MuleSoft promotes design first, and API-led connectivity, and this is a best practice we embrace at Big Compass.  So, I found it interesting that the premier API, AI, and microservices focused conference had many attendees who were notfamiliar with this concept.

There were many full-stack developers there, and it became apparent that these practices aren’t visible in the full-stack community nearly as much as the integration community.

This lack of visibility is a significant takeaway from the conference because, in our integration focused world, we see this all day, every day. This lack of visibility illustrates the fact there is a great amount of information to share with other communities about API best practices.

Another topic of great interest was auto-discovery.  Currently, many companies are trying to solve the issue of auto-discovering APIs and how they can be managed. Auto-discovery is gaining attention all over the industry, where everything from micro-gateways to APIs to microservices is being implemented. The significant challenge for the use of auto-discovery is API management, and considerable work in this area will be necessary to ensure consistent and secure implementations.

With some best practices and good upfront planning/design, these issues can be overcome for organizations who have not gone too far down the rabbit hole and lost count of their APIs or microservices. API World is a great conference and provides many opportunities to learn and explore everything API.