DreamFactory 4.5.2 has been released with improvements to our recently added Snowflake connector. In addition to Snowflake, version 4.5.0 introduced connectors for Apache Hive and Hadoop HDFS. All three were added by request of our customers, and we’re happy to see these new capabilities already being deployed into test environments.

Developers, engineers, and anyone else looking to streamline development and decrease build times for integrations rely on APIs (application programming interface) to enable applications and databases to communicate. This inevitably leads to a comparison between SOAP and REST APIs, since they are two of the most common API paradigms. It can be quite difficult to understand where SOAP and REST methods are best suited, what their specific differences are and why developers prefer one method over the other.

Developers often create many small API tools that can improve functionality, creation, tests, and management. For many organizations though, a comprehensive API management platform that consolidates many features into a single, unified solution presents an attractive alternative. If you don’t want to bother with managing a suite of small, disparate tools, you could be interested in understanding more about the following API platforms that provide an exhaustive set of features.

Whether or not you plan for it, APIs are becoming a critical aspect of your business’s functionality. The Wall Street Journal reports that 10 percent of businesses already use more than 200 apps. You cannot stop your employees from adopting apps that help them do their jobs. Instead, you should lead them by developing a digital strategy that helps monitor KPIs, reviews API adoption, and follows a planned roadmap to reach business goals.

With all the emphasis on the ‘why’ of digital transformation, there’s little clarity of what the end result should look like. And that’s on purpose, because transformation goals are different for each organization and a cookie-cutter model of successful businesses would only stifle innovation. But if there’s one term to describe the end-state of a digitally transformed business, it would be ‘composable enterprise’.

Today’s businesses often rely on hundreds of digital assets, including legacy systems and new applications that streamline their processes. However, you can’t rely on your SaaS apps, microservices, and systems to integrate themselves. Instead, you need an API solution built for full lifecycle API management. Microsoft Azure API Management and 3scale get a lot of positive reviews from users.

Whether you work for a startup or a giant corporation, your organization likely needs a reliable API management solution that helps all of your SaaS apps communicate with each other. The following article compares Tyk and Akana to help you decide whether one of them could meet your needs.

Inertia, cynicism, and doubt can make it difficult for organizations to commit to digital transformation. Employees, executives, and stakeholders might resist digital transformation initiatives even after you explain its benefits. It often takes more than explaining benefits. You get the best results when you can build a community of digital transformation evangelical’s who gets others excited about adopting new technologies.

As companies adopt more apps and microservices they need reliable ways for them to interact with each other and legacy systems. API management platforms offer the best way to open communication between diverse digital assets. As you explore API management platforms, you will probably learn about Kong and Dell Boomi.

Executing on your API strategy requires agile, iterative software development life cycles (SDLC) that are both responsive and provide a degree of structure and predictability to the way in which technology is deployed. Mature organizations that have mastered digital transformation have done so by leveraging the power of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) within SDLC concepts to connect back-end data sources with front-end applications.