APIs are a hot topic in the industry, but what is an API really and why is it any different from old school Application Programming Interfaces? Modern APIs are a flexible way of projecting your capabilities to an audience outside your own team. Think of an API as a product – you carefully craft it so that it is attractive to the intended consumer, so that it “sells”. It doesn’t matter whether that consumer really pays for the API, or for that matter whether she is external to your enterprise or just part of a different team – the point is that you want her to use the API because that brings value to both of you.

So, here are a few things that are not an API:
- A piece of software is not an API… but it may render itself as an API to ease consumption of its capabilities
- A user interface is not an API… but it may be built on top of one
- A server is not an API… but it may host one of more APIs that expose the data and function provided by the server

Remember that an API is really a product. So the key questions to ask are:
- Who is the intended audience?
- How are you going to reach them?
- What are the terms and conditions under which the API can be used?

When done right, APIs enable enterprises to innovate faster and reach new audiences. Stay tuned for my point of view on what APIs mean to different stakeholders and what the best ways are to get started.

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