Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. Basically, the API specifies how software components should interact, with a set of functions and procedures allowing the creation of applications to access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.
What is actually open cloud-based API?
Most Windows applications have some type of API, but the use of these APIs require that all applications are installed and running on the same physical computer. At best, these APIs are available on a local network, not "outside" or over internet. These are closed local APIs. The legacy software used in the oil industry also deploys closed local APIs. They require customers to have already purchased and installed the applications they want to integrate, and the applications only live on local PCs. These kind of APIs are not what the IT industry means when it speaks of “open cloud-based APIs”.
Software running with truly open cloud-based APIs does not require on-premise software installation, and it can share data freely across internet networks. If you’re considering what software to deploy for your business, you need to ask
“Is the software available only internally within my company – or can access be easily delegated to companies and collaborators outside my own local area network?”
It’s essential to understand the difference between software that is cloud-based vs. local, and open vs. closed. Because it’s the difference between modernized legacy software and truly modern software. Read the article where our CTO elaborate more on this.
Partial and full interaction
So, while it’s true that several of the major suppliers of software in the oil industry have built ecosystems using APIs that allow certain software components to interact, they have not actually deployed modern software. Unfortunately for the oil industry’s established software suppliers, it’s going to take a lot of time and money to build what we offer: cloud-based solutions with open APIs.
