Axway, a provider of API management and integration software, announced data from its inaugural 2022 Open Everything Strategy Survey Report. Polling nearly 1,000 IT leaders, architects, and developers about their digital strategies and top concerns, the survey found nearly 40 percent of organizations are adopting a hybrid approach for their IT infrastructure. The transformation comes as 68 percent of respondents cite their fears about API sprawl.
The data reflect responses from those engaged primarily in API development (893) and managed file transfer (MFT) services (102). Ensuring data security and controlling API sprawl were top concerns, with 68 percent worrying about complexity due to sprawl and 48 percent ranking “increased security challenges” as their single greatest concern with API growth.
Respondents also cited security as far and away the most important criteria when creating an API (30 percent among API respondents) and when setting up an MFT service (48 percent among MFT respondents).
“Enterprises are in the thick of digital transformation and accompanying cloud and data migrations have made it possible to free up data so it can be exchanged, reused and remixed to fuel innovation and business growth. But that’s messy,” said Vince Padua, chief innovation and technology officer at Axway. “It brings complexity and security challenges that must be answered by using truly universal API management – that bridges the gap between API development and consumption and opens everything, lines of business and innovation, while building on and out from heritage infrastructure.”
The survey results indicate that budgets for API management have increased over the past two years and that security is top of mind as companies begin to unlock the full value of their data to create new digital experiences, markets and opportunities for revenue.
Half of those surveyed reported modestly elevated API management budgets, with about 34 percent of respondents seeing increases up to 25 percent. Less than 20 percent of respondents saw budget decreases.
Digging deeper, the survey found 59 percent employ user authentication as a top strategy to secure APIs, and almost two-thirds of the API respondents (61 percent) said data encryption can help them personally feel their data are more secure. They also cited developing a more holistic approach to security as the number one strategy for protecting personal data.
One of the most alarming, but not entirely surprising data points, deals with concerns about talent: 86 percent of API respondents fear an expertise gap in the coming years, where companies will not have the skilled software and IT infrastructure talent they need to innovate.
Click here to see the full report.
Learn more at axway.com.
