7 Thoughts on the Business of API Throttling
John Musser over at ProgrammableWeb.com has summarized the various ways (he's outlined 12) API providers can control access to their web services. As John says,
"There are good reasons for this ranging from preventing abuse, controlling costs, or other business-driven reasons."
John triggered a few thoughts for me with his post...Thinking out loud now...
7 Thoughts on the Business of API Throttling
1. Web APIs will be a key driver of future of the networked, services-based economy
2. The science of web API throttling is set to become a core business competency - not just a technical competency - for (hundreds of) thousands of businesses
3. Businesses need to learn about the business of API-based business models (an area where there is some experimentation and learning is going on today, but not enough)
4. Business expertise in designing and evolving API-based business models will be a highly valued skill / commodity
5. Standardized business models need to (and will) emerge regarding web APIs, similar to how there are standardized business contracts today
6. API throttling will become exponentially more complex to execute and operate
7. A significant number of small and medium-sized business (the long tail of today's economies) that want to thrive in the networked economy will need to make a decision in the near future: "do we spend large amounts of resources in the technical operation of API service delivery and throttling expertise in-house, or should we outsource this?"