In the dynamic landscape of modern businesses, the seamless exchange of data and services has emerged as a critical factor for sustainable growth and competitive advantage. And, as organizations strive to enhance their digital ecosystems and integrate diverse applications, the demand for efficient and secure Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) has skyrocketed.
SAP API Management, a cutting-edge solution offered by SAP, stands at the forefront of this revolution, empowering enterprises to orchestrate, govern, and optimize their APIs effortlessly.
This article will discuss the main features and capabilities of API management in SAP and the core advantages of leveraging API support, as well as where our team of SAP consultants can come in to help.
Read on to learn more!
What is SAP API Management?
API management refers to the process of building, publishing, and analyzing application programming interfaces (APIs) and connections between systems, applications, and user interfaces across a company’s entire digital landscape.
Efficient API management allows SAP customers to manage and share their digital assets and processes across systems, provides stronger access controls for core API configurations, and leverages advanced insights to ensure compliance with security policies.
Key Features of API Management in SAP
Let’s take a look at the main features of the SAP API Management architecture for business users:
1) Building
With SAP API Management, every customer is given their own API portal application on the cloud, allowing them to build, test, analyze, and publish new APIs and configure existing systems to handle the scope of each new API. This also provides a common platform that makes it easier for developer communities to build new APIs and manage them from a single, centralized location.
2) Analyzing
With comprehensive analytics capabilities and a dedicated API Analytics server, users can gather and analyze runtime data and facilitate better knowledge transfer by displaying the information as headers, charts, and key performance indicators. This way, they can not only manage important data more efficiently, but also identify trends to improve API management and consumption in the long run.
3) Consuming
Each SAP API Management customer is granted access to their own on-cloud API Business Hub Enterprise application — an application that allows developer communities to consume APIs on a common platform. This makes it easier for application developers to create and leverage new applications and analyze, test, and consume APIs across their entire digital landscape.
4) Publishing
A Product in SAP API Management refers to a bundle of APIs that provides metadata that is specific to your business for monitoring and analytics, making it easier to bundle related APIs together and publish at the same time. Once the required APIs are assigned to a Product, the Product is published to the API Catalog for developers and partners to view and access.
5) Designing
Model APIs use the API Designer — a tool used to help customers create and edit new channels and APIs and view corresponding API documentation in a centralized location. And, with the API specification files created in the API Designer, companies are enabled to publish APIs on the SAP Business Accelerator Hub.
6) Monetizing
The SAP API Management solution offers a monetization feature that helps users create and attach rate plans to a Product in the API Portal, publish the Product in the API Business Hub Enterprise, and generate more revenue through efficient API usage. This functionality also allows users to view bill details for each developer in the SAP API Portal, allowing users to create applications, add products to each application, and drive better revenue conversions.
7) Revising
The SAP API Management solution provides a comprehensive Revisions feature that allows users to make small changes to an existing API Proxy without causing any disruptions to the deployed API or the entire SAP Integration Suite. With this, users are also enabled to view past changes made to the Proxy and restore APIs to any of their previous states, making it easier to gain better insight into API revisions and compare the contents of different revisions.
Why API Management in SAP?
An API management strategy in SAP gives employees a scalable and uniform way to create, register, and manage APIs, assess the feasibility of creating new channels or adding new devices, and connect digital experiences across teams and departments.
With efficient SAP API Management policies, companies across industries are enabled to:
- Leverage open standards like OData and Open API specifications to create and design APIs
- Analyze API performance, usage, and risks over time
- Expose back-end interfaces from middleware or other applications to develop APIs
- Monetize digital assets through efficient API portals
- Use pre-built policies to protect APIs and cache data more efficiently
And, for more information on how SAP Launchpad Support can help companies implement API management strategies more efficiently, click here.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help getting started with SAP API management documentation for the first time, additional support navigating complex connections to the Cloud Foundry, or just an extra hand building new channels and applications to improve efficiencies over time, Surety Systems is here to help.
Our team of senior-level, US-based SAP consultants has the skills, experience, and know-how to help your internal teams and developer communities leverage APIs and connections between SAP applications to improve functionality across the board.
Getting Started with Our Team
Interested in learning more about API management in SAP or where our team of SAP consultants can fit in your organization? Contact us today to get started!
