We tackled issues around mobile and BYOD head-on in a white paper called Secure Mobile Access for Enterprise Employees, which describes how enterprises can securely open their data and application functionality to mobile devices via custom-made apps. Another popular white paper was Federated Identity & Single Sign-On, which explores identity federation for API, mobile, SOA and cloud.

Our webinars featuring input from Forrester Research also drew a lot of interest, especially A Practical Guide to API Security & OAuth for the Enterprise, which provided real-world insight into deploying OAuth as the access control component of a complete API Management solution. Forrester also helped us explore enterprise mobile enablement in another webinar, How to Make Your Enterprise Applications Mobile Ready, Fast.

Looking to the future, Layer 7 will be publishing a series of eBooks, outlining essentials for addressing key issues around API Management and Mobile Access. We got a great reaction from the first of these, called 5 Ways to Get Top Mobile App Developer Talent for Your Open APIs. Over the coming months, we’ll also be publishing eBooks talking about mobile enablement and OAuth. Be sure to watch out for those!

This is causing disruption across industry sectors but also opportunity and it is having a particularly marked impact on the telecommunications industry. With the proliferation of next-generation communication services, consumers and enterprises alike are looking beyond their network service providers and finding exciting new ways to consume content, engage with businesses and communicate with friends or colleagues.

Telcos haven’t been ignoring this by any means, yet several iterations of failed API strategy have led not only to lost revenue opportunities but – in many cases – huge expense as well. However, now is not the time to cast aside these investments or ignore the exploding API economy – and in fact, we’ve heard plenty of success stories from companies that took the correct approach. Telcos must participate and open up more and more services to keep pace with this economy. And they must do so without compromising data and network security.

Layer 7’s new white paper, APIs & the Business of Telecoms, written by independent telecommunications thought leader Alan Quayle, aims to help telcos understand how they can quickly address the functional and non-functional requirements of a successful API exposure program. This is essential reading for all telcos – APIs really are the future!

Here are some takeaways from the conference:

• It’s all about apps… – The hottest exhibition hall at MWC was the “App Planet”, which was primarily populated by app development companies. It’s clear that mobile apps are the draw when it comes to this era of mobile dominance we are entering and this hall emphasized that point clearly and gave a view into the future.
• …and APIs – App Planet also had a lot of API enablers, such as Neustar, on display. Also, three of the keynote speakers — China Mobile, AT&T and Ford — all emphasized the importance of using APIs as a foundation for their mobile strategies. With apps driving mobile adoption, it’s evident that APIs are a fundamental enabler.
• Increasing focus on enterprise – Although much of the focus in the app space was on the consumer market, there is a marked increase in enterprise options. Vendors like Roambi were showcasing their business apps and a number of exhibitors were emphasizing solutions for mobile device management and mobile identity.

All these trends and issues are discussed in Layer 7’s new white paper Secure Mobile Access for Enterprise Employees. The white paper explores how enterprises can use APIs to open internal information assets to mobile developers, to enable the creation of mission-critical apps that maximize employee productivity and availability.

I look forward to following up with all of the people I met in Barcelona and to injecting the lessons I learned into our product suite.

Download the white paper: Secure Mobile Access for Enterprise Employees.

Identity federation is the key to addressing these concerns. A lot of people assume identity federation is the same thing as Single Sign-On (SSO), where a single identity is used to authenticate a user across multiple services, applications and platforms. In fact, SSO is just one piece of the identity federation puzzle, albeit an important one.

Our new white paper, Federated Identity & Single Sign-On Using Layer 7, examines all the key pieces of this puzzle. It takes a detailed overview of the technologies that can be used to merge separate “identity silos” into a centralized, authoritative identity store (SAML, STS, OAuth etc.) It also explains how our products can be used to implement these technologies.

For more information, read Federated Identity & Single Sign-On Using Layer 7

Many of Layer 7’s customers have already made the move into the Cloud. These companies have benefited greatly from our expertise in governance for SOA. This is because SOA governance is directly applicable to the Cloud. Our white paper The Value of Application Service Governance for Cloud Computing provides a detailed explanation of this connection.

Written by internationally-respected SOA/Cloud thought leader David Linthicum, in collaboration with our own Scott Morrison, this white paper outlines how the structure of SOA – services distributed across departments and locations – is at the core of all Cloud computing. So, governance principles that are effective in SOA also work in the Cloud.

To learn more, download The Value of Application Service Governance for Cloud Computing.

Over the last few years, social media and mobile devices have provided all sorts of organizations with the motivation they need to start publicly exposing data and services they would previously have kept private. Clearly, this raises security and management concerns, especially for larger enterprises with valuable data to protect and reputations to maintain.

While API management products have been on the market since at least 2006, there’s still fairly limited understanding of what a fully-functional API management solution looks like – or should look like. Earlier this year, we published our Choosing the Right API Management Solution for the Enterprise User white paper, to help enterprises fill in the blanks.

So, if you’d like to learn the key functional and operational requirements for an API management solution, just download this white paper.

Our new white paper, A How-to Guide to OAuth & API Security, provides practical information and actionable advice on:

• What OAuth is and how it fits into a complete API security solution
• Why implementing OAuth can be a complex matter
• How you can make OAuth implementation simple for your organization

There are two very important lessons you’ll take away from this white paper. First, OAuth is emerging as a cornerstone of secure API publishing and enterprises will need to get to grips with it if they’re serious about protecting customers’ private data.  Second, OAuth is not the be-all-and-end-all of API security. A complete, enterprise-grade API security solution will also have to deliver functionality for auditing, threat detection and so on.

To find out more, download A How-to Guide to OAuth & API Security.

We’ve just added two new pieces of API-related content to our Resource Library: a solution brief called API Management for Content Providers and a white paper called Using Layer 7’s API Gateway for vCloud Architectures. The solution brief explores how content providers can utilize innovative distribution methods while keeping customer account data secure and controlling how content is shared. The white paper explains how vCloud APIs can be used to securely facilitate automation and management of application infrastructure in the Cloud.

The topics covered by these documents are, in many ways, quite different. There’s a common thread here, though. Today’s enterprises need ways to secure and manage their APIs, whether these APIs are used to deliver TV shows to mobile devices or to manage enterprise applications run in the Cloud. In either case, we’re here to help!

Our white paper Identity Federation in Web Services explains exactly why federation is such an issue with Web services. It explores federation problems commonly associated with reusing application logic across diverse business processes that traverse multiple security domains with independent preferences, capabilities and requirements.

It also outlines the requirements for a solution that will simply, effectively and securely bridge application identities across security domains. Our experience with customers – along with the fact that this has consistently been one of our most downloaded resources – continues to reinforce our belief in the value this type of solution offers to today’s extended enterprise

Read the white paper: Identity Federation in Web Services >>

This white paper is also a vital document for us because it outlines the governance philosophy underpinning all our Cloud solutions. It’s increasingly true that everybody wants to be in the Cloud but a move to the Cloud introduces new security risks and may compromise traditional IT governance. That’s where our Cloud governance philosophy comes in.

The way we see it, Cloud governance is a logical evolution of existing SOA governance best practices. It offers a way to assert control over both internal and external applications and data. This white paper should be enough to convince you that, using Cloud governance, the widely reported challenges of Cloud computing can be met.

Download Steer Safely into the Clouds