API Connector for Partner Onboarding

The Opportunity: Adding Value by Opening APIs to Partner Organizations

Increasingly, enterprises are opening their data and application functionality to Web and mobile developers via APIs. This allows enterprises to cost-effectively add value to their businesses and create new revenue opportunities. The developers may be internal resources, independent third parties or employees of partner organizations. Of these three potential developer audiences, partner organizations promise the greatest financial rewards.

The Challenge: Meeting Partners’ Security & Governance Needs

For many enterprises, getting partner organizations to build apps against their APIs can be a significant challenge. Typically, partners have a range of demands around how access to the APIs will be secured and managed. For example, partners may want to:

• Control which developers consume the APIs, by leveraging existing IAM systems
• Insulate developers from API changes and protocol mismatches
• Gain visibility into how developers and their applications consume external APIs

The Solution: A Drop-in API Connector

To address these security and governance requirements, Layer 7 Technologies offers an API Connector Solution. This solution is based on a deployment of Layer 7’s SecureSpan API Proxy product within the partner organization. The SecureSpan API Proxy can be configured and operated either by the API publisher or the partner organization. It acts as a data, protocol and security bridge between the API publisher and applications the partner developers build against the APIs.

The Layer 7 Value: Streamlined Partner Onboarding & API Management

The Layer 7 API Connector Solution empowers enterprises to:

• Streamline partner onboarding – Speeds and simplifies the process of getting partner developers building apps against enterprise APIs
• Delegate access control – Allows partners to decide who has access to external APIs
• Accelerate app development – Simplifies data translation and streamlines the process of developing and testing applications built against external APIs