API World + CloudX + Dev Innovation Summit 2024

Oleg Nenashev, Gradle, Community Builder

Swagger and OpenAPI revolutionized the API landscape and created a thriving ecosystem of developer tools, from IDEs to contract testing and no-code solutions. In our projects (WireMock, Jenkins, Testcontainers and WireMock Cloud) we adopted OpenAPI to provide a great developer, and achieved great results. At the same time, the v3 version of specification has too many limitations, especially when it comes to behavior modeling: limited extensions framework, poor response flexibility limiting complex API options, and weak examples and self documentation capabilities. Good news is that OpenAPI v4 (Project Moonwalk) addresses many of those concerns and, hopefully, could address others before the release. Let’s, wearing our end user hats, discuss the v3 experiences and how we could address them in the upcoming major release!

Alisha Mohanty. OpenText, Manager, Product Marketing

A quick guide to API strategy for businesses to thrive in an era of Artificial Intelligence
Here I elaborate on points to take away for current trends in API strategy and future predictions keeping them relevant the age of AI.

Sridhar Kunisetty, Equinix, Principal Architect

An API linter plays a crucial role in ensuring that API specifications adhere to established standards, best practices, guidelines, and are free from potential errors. It is an essential component in the development process to ensure that APIs are well-designed, consistent, maintainable, reliable, secure and follow the organization's conventions and guidelines.

We present a new approach to API linting by harnessing the power of Generative AI (GenAI). Our solution involves training a Large Language Model (LLM) to act as an Advanced API Linter, capable of not only answering correctness queries but also analyzing API specifications and providing a comprehensive list of errors, violations, and issues.

Unlike traditional API linters, our GenAI solution eliminates the need for complex validation rules and specialized expertise. By training the LLM with our organization's API standards, best practices, and guidelines, we enable it to understand and enforce these rules effortlessly. Moreover, the training process is straightforward, and we can alternatively provide the necessary content as a context in the prompt to the LLM.

One of the key advantages of our GenAI approach is its user-friendliness. Instead of grappling with new syntax or programming languages to define validation rules, users can express their requirements in plain English. This democratizes API linting, empowering developers to improve API quality through self-service and facilitating the seamless adoption of an API-First approach.

During this session, we will showcase a range of use cases that demonstrate how GenAI can be leveraged to achieve advanced API linting capabilities. Additionally, we will explore the potential of utilizing a Small Language Model (SLM) as an alternative to the LLM, opening up new possibilities for API linting efficiency.

Join us as we unveil the future of API linting, where GenAI revolutionizes the development process, enhances API quality, and empowers developers to build robust and reliable APIs effortlessly.

Arun Narasimhan, Senior Software Engineer


In today's digital landscape, large-scale system integrations between industry giants are essential for innovation and market leadership. This presentation explores the challenges and solutions involved in bridging disparate systems through strategic API implementation.

Traditionally, enterprises have operated within isolated ecosystems, resulting in fragmented user experiences. We will examine how industry leaders are overcoming these obstacles by integrating their systems to create unified platforms that deliver enhanced value.

Focusing on the technical intricacies of API schema design, we’ll discuss its significant impact on project timelines and the importance of building working interfaces early in the development process. Additionally, we’ll highlight the critical need to thoroughly review and challenge contractual fine print during integrations.

Attendees will gain valuable takeaways, including best practices for managing large-scale system integrations between industry behemoths. These lessons will prove invaluable for API architects, system integrators, and business leaders looking to forge powerful alliances in the digital age.

Raileen Del Rosario, Docusign, Programmer Writer

Ensuring frictionless integration for developers is key to ensuring that your APIs are used to their fullest potential. By offering reference implementations and a Quickstart wizard in eight programming languages, we highlight the main use cases for our APIs, enabling developers to use our tools efficiently. This talk will discuss how providing ready-made code enables developers to start using your APIs as quickly as possible. 

Budhaditya Bhattacharya, Tyk, Developer Advocate
Supreet Nagi, Northwestern Mutual, Assistant Director Systems Software Engineering

NorthWestern Mutual is one of the largest financial services providers in the United States with 5 million+ customers and 6700+ financial advisors. APIs are a core part of our business and are supported by a highly mature API platform engineering team.
In this case study, we learn how we combined seamless API creation and centralized governance using an automated workflow-based model to drive an exceptional DevX.
We will examine a combination of tools, such as K8S, KEDA, Jaeger, and OTel, that enabled the creation of our API platform, along with changes to people and processes.
What we will cover:
1. Key challenges when balancing API creation & governance at scale
2. Implementing an automated workflow-based governance model
3. Metrics of success & outcomes achieved
4. How to execute a similar API platform strategy using the platform engineering maturity model
Ultimately, this session provides real-world examples and insights into best practices for implementing this model within your company.

Vishal Motwani, Numbers Station AI, Founding Product Manager

Unlock the power of AI in data analytics with Numbers Station's bespoke platform. Join Vishal Motwani, Founding Product Manager of Numbers Station, and uncover how Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing production-level data workflows. 

Via a multi-agent architecture and embeddable API, Numbers Station is built to seamlessly integrate with your existing knowledge sources—dashboards, databases, APIs, dbt, query logs and more. Numbers Station’s AI agents actively search, query, analyze, and take it two steps further—suggesting the next best action and automating downstream tasks in real-time.

Whether you're looking to embed Generative AI into legacy systems or elevate your organization's data capabilities, this session offers a glimpse into the future of AI-powered analytics that won't disrupt your current infrastructure. Don't miss this opportunity to supercharge your data strategy!

Harsh Sharma, Shell, Associate Software Engineer

How to build API/Interfaces using Azure Integration Services like logic App, APIM, Service Bus, Function App.
 

Sumeet Kumar Agrawal,  Informatica, Vice President Product Management

As GenAI adoption accelerates, enterprises are increasingly turning to low-code and no-code API development to democratize access and spur innovation. However, deploying GenAI applications within large organizations poses unique challenges, including a shortage of skilled resources, navigating complex enterprise data landscapes, staying relevant with rapidly evolving GenAI models and frameworks, and the difficulty of scaling AI projects beyond proof of concept.
Join us for an insightful session where we explore overcoming these challenges with a GenAI-powered integration API solution. We will discuss strategies to democratize GenAI across various user personas, contextualize its use for future-proofing, create LLM agnostic GenAI orchestrations, and achieve enterprise-grade scalability. Learn how to leverage the right data management tools to build successful GenAI apps that are easy to use, grounded with high-quality and trusted enterprise data, and protected from bias and privacy breaches.

Brett Bush, LogicGate, Staff Software Engineer: Platform

Within API-First development, a dichotomy has formed: Code-First or Design-First. Are these approaches destined to be adopted in polarized isolation, or rather, are they equally valid phases of a healthy API development cycle? This presentation will reveal a new way to visualize the cyclical nature of Code-First and Design-First API development, discuss parallels to Test-Driven development, and explore the benefits unlocked from leveraging both methodologies in tandem. 

Parth Shah, Cruise, Staff Software Engineer
Bianca Tamayo, Cruise, Staff Software Engineer

In today's micro services world, it is far too common for an API service to explode at an unbounded rate. The journey starts off as a shiny new micro service, which was designed to contain APIs for 1 business entity, becoming so heavily utilized that over time, it evolves and turns into a massive monolith, which contains hundreds of APIs for dozens of business entities. In the early days, new features could be introduced and rolled out within a few hours. Now, a small database schema change takes a few days or weeks to roll out. In this madness, how do you effectively and efficiently decompose and modernize your monolith? This session goes over a real world case study of how a group of 5 engineers decomposed a 160+ API monolith into smaller and focused micro services with 0 outages, 0 downtime, increase in overall service availability from 99.9% to 99.999%, decrease in latencies from 15% to 95% and ability to handle 90x more traffic with a reduced resource footprint (68% reduction in compute and 55% reduction in memory).
 

Amol Gote, Innova Solutions, Solutions Architect

In the evolving landscape of financial services, implementing a cash flow underwriting system aims to expand credit access and enhance risk assessment. This session will cover an approach that leverages open banking, machine learning, and dynamic underwriting rules to provide creditworthiness evaluation beyond traditional credit scoring methods. It will cover the case study of iCreditWorks - a Fintech organization where this pattern was implemented.

The system consists of four critical components:

(1) A financial data aggregator to securely link customers' bank accounts, utilizing open banking APIs and traditional integration techniques.

(2) Collaboration with a specialized partner that employs machine learning models to analyze transaction data, generating a comprehensive cash flow score and identifying verifiable income.

(3) Developing and implementing underwriting rules that integrate the cash flow score and income data to make informed lending decisions.

(4) The seamless integration of these components into a mobile application and backend infrastructure, ensuring a user-friendly experience and efficient loan application processing.

This session discusses the cash flow underwriting system's design, implementation, and strategic significance. It highlights its potential to extend credit access by surpassing traditional credit scores and opening new avenues for financial inclusion and risk assessment. It also introduces a technical implementation approach for cash flow underwriting by integrating multiple services and using open banking for bank account linking for transaction data.

Derric Gilling, Moesif, CEO

A discussion on what are healthy metrics foryour developer program and ways to improve like Time to First Hello World (TTFHW) and integration rate. What does it mean to build a good Developer Experience and some tips on where you can improve. 

Ayesha M. Ali, Metavisionaries, Co-Founder / Creative Director

This session will explore the transformative potential of APIs in the realm of Fusion Tech Art and interdisciplinary content creation. Emphasizing the integration of frontier technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), we will discuss how APIs serve as the vital connectors enabling seamless communication and collaboration across diverse creative fields. Participants will gain insights into how APIs facilitate innovative approaches that merge art, technology, fashion, and more.
Objectives:
• Introduce the Concept of Fusion Tech Art: Explain the importance and impact of Fusion Tech Art in the modern digital and creative industries.
• Highlight the Role of APIs: Discuss how APIs act as the backbone of integrating AI, ML, and various creative disciplines.
• Demonstrate Practical API Integration Techniques: Showcase new interdisciplinary approaches enabled by APIs and practical techniques that can be adopted by entrepreneurs and creatives.
• Case Study: Present a detailed case study of my project sent to space in collaboration with NASA and SpaceX, illustrating the power of API-driven integration.
• Ethical and Sustainable Practices: Address the ethical considerations and sustainability issues related to API-driven AI and tech projects, both on Earth and in space.
Session Outline:
1. Introduction to Fusion Tech Art:
• Definition and significance of Fusion Tech Art in contemporary creative practices.
• Overview of how APIs enable the integration of AI, ML, and other technologies into creative projects.
2. Current Landscape of Frontier Technologies:
• In-depth look at the latest developments in AI, ML, and their applications through APIs.
• Examples of cutting-edge tools and platforms that utilize APIs for interdisciplinary integration.
3. Seamless Interdisciplinary Techniques through APIs:
• Step-by-step guide on adopting an interdisciplinary approach using APIs.
• Demonstration of API functionalities that enable the merging of art, technology, fashion, and other fields.
4. Case Study: Art Project to Space via APIs:
• Detailed narrative of my project sent to the International Space Station (ISS) with NASA and SpaceX, focusing on the API integrations that made it possible.
• Insights into the creative process, collaboration, and execution of the project.
• Lessons learned and tips for aspiring creatives and entrepreneurs on leveraging APIs.
5. Ethics and Sustainability in API-Driven Fusion Tech Art:
• Discussion on the ethical implications of using APIs in AI and content creation.
• Sustainability discourse and its importance in tech-driven projects.
• How to ensure responsible and sustainable practices when utilizing APIs in creative projects.
Target Audience:
• API developers and technologists interested in the creative applications of their work.
• Artists and designers looking to integrate technology into their projects using APIs.
• Entrepreneurs and creatives seeking innovative interdisciplinary approaches.
• Educators and students in the fields of art, technology, and design.
Expected Outcomes:
• Increased awareness and understanding of Fusion Tech Art and the role of APIs in enabling it.
• Practical knowledge of API-driven tools and techniques for merging diverse creative disciplines.
• Inspiration from real-world examples and successful case studies.
• A framework for ethically and sustainably implementing API-driven AI and tech in creative projects.