Explore the transformative power of IBM i APIs in the cloud. This article will guide you through how IBM i APIs can modernize, integrate, and enhance your cloud-based applications, offering a new realm of possibilities for businesses leveraging cloud technology.
Enhancing IBM i Applications with APIs
If your company has or is considering moving your IBM i workload to the Cloud, APIs should be on your roadmap of how to interact with your application into the future. Here are six ways real-time APIs could help:
- Modernize End User experiences with responsive web/tablet/mobile GUIs
- Internal Application-to-Application integration (like IBM i + Oracle or SQL Server)
- External Application-to-Application integration (like IBM i + Salesforce or HubSpot or any SAAS package)
- 3rd Party API integration (like traffic, weather, shipper data, credit card processor, etc)
- Developing with modern programming languages (like Javascript, Python, C#.Net, Java, or PHP)
- Integrate free open-source tools to your IBM i (like Twillio Messaging)
IBM i APIs for Seamless Integration and Modernization
In a Cloud hosted environment, APIs are used today to automate operations, to link your on-premise desktops and servers securely to your Cloud machines and, most importantly, to share application functions and data across any platforms you can reach from your Cloud systems.
Typically, hosting data centers have very high speed, high capacity, highly secure internet pipes that allow you to transfer large amounts of data very quickly and to handle high volumes of requests.
That capacity opens up lots of new opportunities for providing online access to your systems via APIs. You can send large datasets to machine learning systems like Watson at high speed, you can handle significant numbers of requests for price quotes, and you can provide very rapid response time to hundreds, thousands or more simultaneous users.
APIs become multipurpose high speed connectors for your cloud machines. You can use the same APIs for feeding data to a new user interface that you use to send data to mobile devices. You can provide those APIs to customers and partners to electronically run inquiries on your system or to share data.
The API code can track who the users are, what purpose for which they are using the API and what data and functions to which they should have access.
Real-World Applications of IBM i APIs in Cloud Environments
We have been working with several IBM i ISVs that are starting to move their customers to hosted machines in the Cloud. They are providing their customers with APIs that allow them to access ecommerce sites like Amazon, eBay, Shopify and Magento.
They are helping their customers integrate with API based supply chains, with online payment processors and with government websites. They are enabling their hosted customers to run 24×7 operations even when the customer has no staff on duty. Those APIs are helping customers increase revenue, decrease costs and automate business operations.
One of the most popular use cases we encounter is in logistics and is affectionally called “Where’s my truck?” – geolocation integration to the transportation management system running on IBM i.
Sometimes the API is exposed to an external client searching for their delivery information, and sometimes it’s consuming the location data from the IoT device in real time.
If you are running a hosted IBM i application workload in the Cloud, then high speed, high security APIs can ease the transition while allowing you to take advantage of new online revenue-producing, client-satisfying opportunities.
If you would like to learn more about running APIs in a Cloud environment, reach out to us at www.eradani.com/contact or call us at 510 324 9947. We look forward to speaking with you!
