Modern APIs: Building and Evolving

APIs are all about communication. Services talk to other services and front-ends talk to backends. But APIs also define the rules that developers must follow when writing code to complete their tasks, so good APIs clearly communicate their intent to a human audience.

A modern cloud operating model is API-driven, but what does that really look like? Should you use GraphQL or ReST? Stick with JSON or is gRPC a better choice? When do you need a service mesh or an API gateway? How do you factor in the people who have to build, maintain, evolve, and consume your APIs?

The modern APIs track will include real-world stories and advice regarding all the challenges and important decisions needed for a successful API strategy.

From this track

Session Application Programming Interface

API Evolution Without Versioning

Tuesday Oct 25 / 10:35AM PDT

Versioning is usually the first–and too often, the only–technique architects reach for when imagining a breaking change to an API’s interface. Based on my experience managing the evolution of a public API, I’ve recently cataloged several alternative techniques and their tradeoffs.

Brandon Byars

North America Head of Technology @thoughtworks

Session Application Programming Interface

What API Product Managers Need

Tuesday Oct 25 / 11:50AM PDT

With thousands of APIs being built across the industry, serving millions of developers worldwide, and driving billions in revenue, there is a need to manage APIs as products. Building great API products requires both building technically sound APIs and creating an API experience to match.

Deepa Goyal

Product Strategy @Postman, previously Product Developer @PayPal & @Twilio

Session Application Programming Interface

Scaling GraphQL Adoption at Netflix

Tuesday Oct 25 / 01:40PM PDT

GraphQL is steadily gaining popularity as an API technology choice for Client to Server communication. However, it can be daunting to realize the benefits of GraphQL without significant investment.

Tejas Shikhare

Senior Software Engineer @Netflix

Session Application Programming Interface

Sidecars, eBPF and the Future of Service Mesh

Tuesday Oct 25 / 05:25PM PDT

Controversy over the future of service meshes and their architectures is swirling. This is a vital discussion as enterprise migration to microservice and Kubernetes-based architectures continue. This talk incorporates the latest community developments to explore what the future looks like.

Jim Barton

Field Engineer @Solo, previously @Redhat @Amazon & @Zappos

Session

[Panel] Who Cares About Your API?

Tuesday Oct 25 / 02:55PM PDT

Who cares about your API? Everyone. DevOps has shown us that when developers care about operations, they write better software. What other viewpoints should developers consider when they're building software?