Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable the establishment of digital ecosystems and the coordination of their digital interactions. A robust and performing technical infrastructure is crucial to ensure the sustainable thriving of digital environments.

Against this backdrop, this report explores API-related technical essentials that organisations must consider when designing their digital agendas at tactical, implementation and operative levels. Specifically, it first describes good practices for the management of API software product development as well as for the coordination of API assets within an organisation. Then, it evaluates different mechanisms that foster the uptake of API services by external parties. Later, it describes the main security concerns that need to be tackled by API providers’ organisations to mitigate potential vulnerabilities in their ICT infrastructures. Last, this report describes novel technical solutions that deal with security and privacy issues jointly.

Other reports related to this work include:

THIS REPORT is complemented by two additional documents of API4IPS project outputs:

1. API STRATEGY LEGAL AND ORGANISATIONAL ESSENTIALS 

This report analyses legal and organisational aspects to be considered by government bodies i) to lawfully operate with their API infrastructure and ii) to better coordinate their API-driven digital relationships. These aspects include the analysis of the legal framework applicable to APIs, current organisational practices of digital coordination through APIs, and empirical analysis of the conditions included in 4000 API’s Terms of Service documents.

2. API STRATEGY ESSENTIALS FOR PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION – MAIN FINDINGS & CONCLUSIONS

This report describes the main findings of the project and draws overarching conclusions about areas to focus on when using API infrastructure in public sector innovation processes.