Why DIGITAL = APIs ?

[anilsr]

In today's world, each and every company would like to become a Digital Company, Many software companies / other industries uses Digital word in various contexts. For some people, Digital transformation means building an App. For some Digital is all about latest cool technologies like BigData, IoT etc..

What do you think about Digital Transformation & Why Digital = APIs ?

[bkirschner · Accepted solution]

I'd define digital transformation in the broadest sense as reaching a point at which "something you couldn't do in the pre-digital world" materially drives your business. There's no one size fits all: if you look at annual reports from Nike, Starbucks, and GE respectively. Nike talks about 1B digital interactions with customers years. Starbucks about $1B annually in digital payments. And GE about each pre-existing industrial line of business adding $1B in new digital revenue.

APIs underping all of these (and, I believe, any other examples you could find). Modern web APIs are the design pattern for doing three things that at minimum every aspiring digital company needs to do:

- Deliver apps at pace, both initially and iteratively

- Capture and re-deploy data to shape experiences using machine learning and analytics in as quickly as real time

- "Mash up" data or harness developer talent across their own organizational silos, their partners, or an open ecosystem without prohibitive overhead & friction

[bkirschner · Accepted solution]

I'd define digital transformation in the broadest sense as reaching a point at which "something you couldn't do in the pre-digital world" materially drives your business. There's no one size fits all: if you look at annual reports from Nike, Starbucks, and GE respectively. Nike talks about 1B digital interactions with customers years. Starbucks about $1B annually in digital payments. And GE about each pre-existing industrial line of business adding $1B in new digital revenue.

APIs underping all of these (and, I believe, any other examples you could find). Modern web APIs are the design pattern for doing three things that at minimum every aspiring digital company needs to do:

- Deliver apps at pace, both initially and iteratively

- Capture and re-deploy data to shape experiences using machine learning and analytics in as quickly as real time

- "Mash up" data or harness developer talent across their own organizational silos, their partners, or an open ecosystem without prohibitive overhead & friction

[anilsr]

Great Answer @Bryan Kirschner , Thank you !

[#5]

An API is to Digital as Track is to a Railroad... Digital operates on a robust, internet scale compute and network fabric, an efficient and lightweight means of sharing formation, as well as a common set of patterns of access and control. APIs provide that.

[gnanasekaran · Accepted solution]

+1 @Bryan Kirschner - completely agree

But i just tried to arrive at the solution in 2 other different ways, just for the fun of arriving at the proof!

Proof 1:

The definition of digital is clearly a time variant, so just considering the near past --

> during transistors, anything that used transistors are digital (switches)

> during microprocessors, anything that used microprocessors are digital (punch cards),

> during mainframes, anything that used mainframe was digital (reservation systems)

> during y2k, anything that had a website was digital (websites)

> during soa, anything that had a webservice was digital (business process)

> during mobile, anything that had a mobile app is digital? (mcommerce)

Today - anything that is accessible anywhere is digital!(everything)

Today - is the period of APIs - anything can be accesible anywhere only thro APIs -

so anything that has an API is typically considered as digital!

So for time being, APIs are the new Digital

hence the proof, APIs == Digital or Digital == APIs

Proof 2:

if you consider digital transformation as a function of a thing,

digital_transformation = function(thing){
return digitally_transformed_thing
}

So, digitally_transformed_thing == digital_thing == digital

Digital Theorem 1:

Digitally Transformed Thing == Digital

If you take business as a example,

digitally_transformed_business = digital_transformation(business)

digitally_transformed_business == digital business == digital ---- > 1

The constraint is the time to run this function, which depends on the platform its running

[like for computation the platforms are 8085,8086,8051 ..... Core i7]

for business, the platforms are .............,SOA, APIs [.... -- previously discussed platforms]

There is empirical evidence and general consensus that API platforms runs digital_transformation functions much much faster than the older ones

Hence time to yield results of digital_transformation function for your business is proportional to the use of APIs in your business

So -

digitally_transformed_business = APIs * Digital_Transformation_Constant

hence, by Digital Theorem 1,

=>

digital = APIs * Digital_Transformation_Constant

When your business is Digtial, the Digital_Transformation_Constant becomes unity (1)

and hence (the proof!),

DIGITAL == APIs, when your business is digital, i.e, Digital_Transformation_Constant = 1

Digital == APIs

[DChiesa]

HA! I love it! Mukundha, ingenious!

[#8]

Very insightful indeed... The point about "time being the constraint, and that time being dependent on the platform is perhaps the most important to consider. It's very easy (and sometimes even convenient) to lose sight of this...