The 7 Major Players in Full Life Cycle API Management

Part of our ongoing coverage of the data and analytics marketplace involves the various companies that make up the space. Providers that offer analytics products and services come in many different shapes and sizes, and it’s common for the eye to focus on the shiny new toy; the providers offering something we’ve never seen before. While those trends are certainly worth keeping tabs on, we recognize that reporting on the pillars of the market may be even more beneficial given the ease with which they are recognized.

The following providers have recently been named leaders in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management, and while each company’s market share differs, these companies shape the foundation of this market. Emerging providers can only hope to replicate the kind of success that these cornerstones have earned over a period of time. These companies stand out as rock-solid cornerstones that offer options for a wide variety of use cases, making them the most trustworthy of the bunch.

The CA Technologies API Management and Microservices portfolio allows organizations to create, deliver and manage the full lifecycle of APIs. CA’s API Academy provides resources, workshops and consulting services on API strategy, design and architecture, and transformation allows users to adapt and modernize existing sysmems with translation from most legacy protocols to REST and JSON for cloud, mobile and IoT apps.

Google‘s Apigee is a full lifecycle API management platform that enables providers to design, secure, deploy and monitor APIs. The solution sits in-line with runtime API traffic and enforces set API policies that include key validation, quota management, authorization and access control. It also features a customizable developer portal for consuming APIs and to measure performance and usage.

IBM‘s API Management solution allows organizations to create, manage and monitor an on-prem cloud from which users can create, promote, use and track APIs. The cloud is comprised of various appliances, with each being tied to a server that you can assign a specific role. The collection of servers defines the cloud and determines how best to distribute the work of managing, analyzing, routing and storing data.

MuleSoft‘s Anypoint Platform includes an API Manager that enables organizations to manage users, monitor and analyze traffic, and promote and secure APIs with ordered policies. Users can also provide API management for every connection made to backend services and data sources with the Mule runtime engine. The tool works regardless of where APIs are hosted and the technologies they run on, further enhancing MuleSoft’s utility.

Red Hat‘s 3scale API Management product allows organizations to manage APIs for internal or external users. Users can share, secure, distribute, control and monetize APIs on an infrastructure platform build for performance and customer control. Recently released version 2 of the platform enables users to place any 3scale components on-prem, in the cloud, or on any combination of the two. Red Hat is publicly traded and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Software AG offers API management capabilities via its webMethods platform. The tool’s API Catalog allows organizations view 50 different asset types and lets users zoom in to see complex asset dependencies. The API Gateway uses reverse invoke and inside-out service invocations to protect against outside threats, and Software AG’s API Portal enables users to sign up developers and enhance developer collaboration.

TIBCO Software‘s Mashery API Management tool provides a full range of capabilities that include API creation, packaging, testing, and management for a community of users. The product includes API security as well, via an embedded or optional on-prem API gateway. TIBCO’s developer portal allows users to define and manage community APIs and a provide a single point of access for internal and external developers. TIBCO is also a major player in both the BI and analytics and data integration tools markets.