How the API is igniting a culture shift in business ?
API是怎样点燃这场商业文化变革的？
As the fast eat the slow, CIOs need to redefine the role of IT and enable the broader business to speed up the pace of innovation through self service.
We are in the middle of a generational shift in technology. The convergence of digital forces—namely mobile, SaaS, cloud, big data, Internet of Things (IoT) and social—is creating a massive disruption in the market and altering consumer expectations. Today, everything needs to be personalized, dynamic, always on and always mobile.
As a result, there’s no shortage of organizations hoping to reinvent themselves for the digital age. Success in today’s fast-paced economy relies on continuous innovation and adaptation, leaving no room for disjointed technologies and stagnant processes.
However, most organizations are struggling to adapt to this new, rapid way, which may be one of the reasons why 52 percent of the Fortune 500 have fallen off the list since 2000. It also explains a key reason why the likes of Amazon, which is manically focused on moving faster than competitors, has climbed the ranks in under eight years.
For Amazon, winning is about speed, agility, inventiveness and an ability to try many experiments rapidly and fail fast. Recent experiments by the once-exclusively internet company include opening its first brick-and-mortar retail store and soon opening its first convenience stores.
It’s clear the big no longer eat the small; the fast eat the slow. Speed is one of the single most important characteristics that determine a company’s success today. It’s critical for bringing new products to market, establishing new global presences, changing existing processes and onboarding new partners—all faster than competition.
However, speed is proving to be a struggle across industries as new digital forces converge. So, how can companies speed up to win in the API economy, which is simply the sum of digital exchanges between two or more parties?
A big barrier for companies looking to achieve speed is the IT delivery gap. IT has a relatively fixed set of resources and a constrained capacity to deliver on new projects. Yet, as new digital forces enter the workplace, the business wants to move faster and continuously evolve to meet new market and consumer needs. All of a sudden, project backlogs build up and overwhelm central IT teams, who then hold back the business.
In this frazzled state, IT teams often resort to creating shortcuts to complete projects on tighter timelines and smaller budgets. These shortcuts often mean creating point-to-point connections between systems, usually with an outsourced workforce. However, each point-to-point connection creates tight dependencies between applications so any future changes require extensive and costly downstream work.
The resulting technical debt compounds the problem with little thought given to long term manageability or reuse. Eventually, business users don’t feel a strong partnership with the IT team, leading them to take matters into their own hands and purchase their own technology tools. This is known as shadow IT, and it puts mission critical customer and product data at risk, putting more pressure on central IT.
The reality for established enterprises is that the centralized IT model is no longer working. IT teams can’t keep running faster on the project hamster wheel. With today’s digital forces knocking down the door, central IT needs to evolve and operate under a new model that caters to ever-changing business needs.
To close the IT delivery gap, IT needs to shift away from the traditional project-based approach—where they try to deliver all IT projects themselves—and toward an approach that allows IT to build reusable assets that are consumable by the broader development community within the organization.
The modern API is the core enabler behind this approach. Modern APIs adhere to standards (e.g., HTTP, REST, JSON) that are developer-friendly, language agnostic, and easily accessible and understood broadly by developers. These modern APIs are more than code. They are products; they live beyond any one project; they have a strong discipline for security and governance; and they have their own software development lifecycles (SDLC) of designing, testing, building, managing and versioning. These new API characteristics completely change the disrupt-or-be-disrupted game.
Now with API-led connectivity, rather than connecting everything point-to-point, key assets become managed APIs that can be discovered by developers in an environment still tightly secured by central IT. Central IT essentially “Lego-ifies” the business, as teams compose, recompose and adapt these building blocks to address changing needs. Then, the speed with which every subsequent project is delivered begins to accelerate because the new operating model eliminates the work needed to build future projects and processes from scratch.
The web has proven how effective APIs can be in driving speed and innovation on top of self-service capabilities. With approximately 16,000 open APIs on the web, developers can build an idea in days and scale it or kill it just as quickly. Almost all of us use these services every day. Almost every popular mobile app we use leverages building blocks on the web, so app developers don’t need to build their own maps, communication services, data services, and more. Developers can focus on building value and innovation on top of these APIs.
To participate in the external API economy, businesses need to drive an internal API economy first. Innovation at the edges doesn’t work unless a business can unlock its core, which is often made up of big, monolithic infrastructure. By opening up APIs internally, businesses can free themselves from the limitations of their legacy systems, changing the way they deliver digital products and services to customers, partners and employees.
To drive this innovation, organizations are shifting to an IT-as-a-Service operating model, where IT-owned capabilities are being offered as a service to the business. With this strategy, businesses are creating internal API economies, where assets are consumed and built upon to drive new value internally and externally.
A successful internal API economy requires IT to decentralize and democratize application development and data access to the business as a whole. In addition, central IT needs to invest in enabling a broader set of developers internally to discover, use and self-serve these assets, so the business can deliver more of their own projects. This changes the relationship between IT and the business.
To win in the digital era, companies need to play a larger role in the API economy. We’re all used to the instant connectivity that puts the world at our fingertips. Today, it’s difficult to imagine standing in a long line at the bank to cash a check, or waiting more than 10 minutes for our taxi to arrive. Whereas a mere five years ago that would have been a normal part of our daily lives.
The unsung hero of our connected world is the modern API. It’s what makes possible all the interactivity that we’ve come to expect and rely upon. It helps drive the speed with which new technology products can be brought to market faster than the competition, establish new market presences quickly and change processes and workflows to fit evolving consumer tastes.
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我翻译了下面这篇文章，来帮助大家理解这个问题，希望能帮到大家。
How the API is igniting a culture shift in business ?
API是怎样点燃这场商业文化变革的？
As the fast eat the slow, CIOs need to redefine the role of IT and enable the broader business to speed up the pace of innovation through self service.
在这个快鱼吃慢鱼的时代，CIO们要重新定义IT的角色，通过自身的服务扩大业务边疆以跟上创新节奏的要求。
We are in the middle of a generational shift in technology. The convergence of digital forces—namely mobile, SaaS, cloud, big data, Internet of Things (IoT) and social—is creating a massive disruption in the market and altering consumer expectations. Today, everything needs to be personalized, dynamic, always on and always mobile.
我们正处于技术的变革之中，数字化力量（或者说移动互联网、SaaS、云计算、大数据，物联网和社交媒体）的聚合正在对市场造成巨大干扰并改变消费者期望值。今天，一切都要个性化、创新，可移动的。
As a result, there’s no shortage of organizations hoping to reinvent themselves for the digital age. Success in today’s fast-paced economy relies on continuous innovation and adaptation, leaving no room for disjointed technologies and stagnant processes.
因此，没有企业不希望在数字化时代重塑自我。在如今快节奏的经济环境下，成功依赖于持续的创新和不断适应市场的变化，脱节的技术和过时的流程没有生存空间。
However, most organizations are struggling to adapt to this new, rapid way, which may be one of the reasons why 52 percent of the Fortune 500 have fallen off the list since 2000. It also explains a key reason why the likes of Amazon, which is manically focused on moving faster than competitors, has climbed the ranks in under eight years.
然而，大多数组织还在这个全新的、快速的时代苦苦挣扎，这可能是自2000年以来52%的世界500强企业跌落榜单的一个原因。这也解释了为什么像亚马逊这种疯狂追求比竞争对手更快的企业能够不断向上攀升的关键原因。
For Amazon, winning is about speed, agility, inventiveness and an ability to try many experiments rapidly and fail fast. Recent experiments by the once-exclusively internet company include opening its first brick-and-mortar retail store and soon opening its first convenience stores.
对于亚马逊而言，决胜在于速度、敏捷性、创造性和快速尝试快速失败的能力。最近的实验是一家纯互联网公司发布首家实体零售商店并很快开设第一家便利店。
It’s clear the big no longer eat the small; the fast eat the slow. Speed is one of the single most important characteristics that determine a company’s success today. It’s critical for bringing new products to market, establishing new global presences, changing existing processes and onboarding new partners—all faster than competition.
很显然，不再是大鱼吃小鱼了，而是快鱼吃慢鱼。速度是目前决定公司成败的唯一重要的特征。比竞争对手更快将新产品推向市场、建立新的全球化风采，改变现有的流程以及培养新的合作伙伴，都至关重要。
However, speed is proving to be a struggle across industries as new digital forces converge. So, how can companies speed up to win in the API economy, which is simply the sum of digital exchanges between two or more parties?
然而，在新的数字化力量变革中，速度被证明是一种穿越行业的斗争。因此，企业如何在API经济经济浪潮中以速度取胜，简单来说企业在两方或者说多方的数字化交流中如何取胜？
The IT delivery gap
IT交付的鸿沟
A big barrier for companies looking to achieve speed is the IT delivery gap. IT has a relatively fixed set of resources and a constrained capacity to deliver on new projects. Yet, as new digital forces enter the workplace, the business wants to move faster and continuously evolve to meet new market and consumer needs. All of a sudden, project backlogs build up and overwhelm central IT teams, who then hold back the business.
企业实现速度取胜的最大障碍在于IT交付的差距。IT是在一种相对固定的资源和限制能力条件下来完成新项目需求的。然而，新的数字力量进入市场，业务要加快变革并不断改进来适应新的市场和消费需求。突然间，项目不断积压而淹没技术团队，这个时候谁能够掌控业务？
In this frazzled state, IT teams often resort to creating shortcuts to complete projects on tighter timelines and smaller budgets. These shortcuts often mean creating point-to-point connections between systems, usually with an outsourced workforce. However, each point-to-point connection creates tight dependencies between applications so any future changes require extensive and costly downstream work.
在这种疲劳状态下，技术团队只好在有限的时间里花一点点预算来创造捷径完成项目。这种捷径常常意味着创建系统间点对点的连接，通常需要外包力量。然而，每一个点对点的连接需要密切依赖各个应用程序，因此未来的任何变化都需要广泛的和昂贵的后续工作。
The resulting technical debt compounds the problem with little thought given to long term manageability or reuse. Eventually, business users don’t feel a strong partnership with the IT team, leading them to take matters into their own hands and purchase their own technology tools. This is known as shadow IT, and it puts mission critical customer and product data at risk, putting more pressure on central IT.
由此而产生的技术债务加剧了未经深思熟虑的长期管理和重复利用的问题。最终，业务团队们感受不到技术团队的强有力的支持，导致他们购买自己的技术工具。这就是大家熟知的技术泥潭，它把关键客户和产品数据推向危险地带，向技术中心施加更大的压力。
The reality for established enterprises is that the centralized IT model is no longer working. IT teams can’t keep running faster on the project hamster wheel. With today’s digital forces knocking down the door, central IT needs to evolve and operate under a new model that caters to ever-changing business needs.
建立企业的现实是，建立IT中心的模式不再有效。IT团队不可能持续跑赢项目的滑轮。现在，数字化力量在敲门，技术中心需要发展和运营新的模式来满足不断变化的业务需求
The new IT operating model
新的IT运营模式
To close the IT delivery gap, IT needs to shift away from the traditional project-based approach—where they try to deliver all IT projects themselves—and toward an approach that allows IT to build reusable assets that are consumable by the broader development community within the organization.
要消除技术交付的鸿沟，技术部门必须改变传统基于项目的思维——即全部项目靠自己——而应该建立允许IT创建可重复利用的成果的思维模式，它便于组织内的开发团队更广泛的共享这些成果。
The modern API is the core enabler behind this approach. Modern APIs adhere to standards (e.g., HTTP, REST, JSON) that are developer-friendly, language agnostic, and easily accessible and understood broadly by developers. These modern APIs are more than code. They are products; they live beyond any one project; they have a strong discipline for security and governance; and they have their own software development lifecycles (SDLC) of designing, testing, building, managing and versioning. These new API characteristics completely change the disrupt-or-be-disrupted game.
现代的API是这种方法背后的核心推动者。现代API遵守标准（例如HTTP，REST，JSON等），对开发者友好，与开发语言无关，并且对于开发者来说更容易应用和理解。这些现代化的API不仅仅是代码。它们是产品，它们位于项目之上，它们具有严格的安全和管理规范，它们有自己的软件开发生命周期，包括设计、测试、创建、管理和版本控制等。这些新的API特性完全改变了这场混乱的游戏。
Now with API-led connectivity, rather than connecting everything point-to-point, key assets become managed APIs that can be discovered by developers in an environment still tightly secured by central IT. Central IT essentially “Lego-ifies” the business, as teams compose, recompose and adapt these building blocks to address changing needs. Then, the speed with which every subsequent project is delivered begins to accelerate because the new operating model eliminates the work needed to build future projects and processes from scratch.
现在在API主导的连接中，再也不是什么事情都点对点的连接，核心的资产变成了管理API了，这些API是开发者们在仍然由技术中心守卫的环境中挖掘出来的。技术中心以团队构建的乐高式的业务模式，从根本上进行了重组来适应这些不断变化的需求。然后，每个后续项目交付的速度开始加快，因为这种新的运营模式消除了要从头构建项目和流程的工作。
The internal API economy
内部API经济
The web has proven how effective APIs can be in driving speed and innovation on top of self-service capabilities. With approximately 16,000 open APIs on the web, developers can build an idea in days and scale it or kill it just as quickly. Almost all of us use these services every day. Almost every popular mobile app we use leverages building blocks on the web, so app developers don’t need to build their own maps, communication services, data services, and more. Developers can focus on building value and innovation on top of these APIs.
互联网已经证明了API可以加快高级自主服务能力的速度和创新。在大约16000个开放API的支持下，开发者们可以在几天内实现一个想法，然后快速规模化或者淘汰掉。几乎我们所有人每天都在使用这些服务。几乎每一个受欢迎的手机APP，我们都采用杠杆力量在网络上创建模块，这样APP开发者们不需要创建自己的地图、交流服务、数据服务等等。开发者们聚焦于在这些API之上创造价值和创新。
To participate in the external API economy, businesses need to drive an internal API economy first. Innovation at the edges doesn’t work unless a business can unlock its core, which is often made up of big, monolithic infrastructure. By opening up APIs internally, businesses can free themselves from the limitations of their legacy systems, changing the way they deliver digital products and services to customers, partners and employees.
要想参与外部API经济，企业必须从驱动内部API经济开始。边缘创新行不通，除非解开内核，这通常建立在大型的、整体的基础设施之上。通过在内部开放API，企业可以突破老旧系统的限制，打开自由之门，改变向客户、合作伙伴、员工交付数字化产品和服务的模式。
To drive this innovation, organizations are shifting to an IT-as-a-Service operating model, where IT-owned capabilities are being offered as a service to the business. With this strategy, businesses are creating internal API economies, where assets are consumed and built upon to drive new value internally and externally.
驱动这一创新，组织要转向一个将技术作为一种服务的运营模式，这个时候技术拥有的能力被作为服务提供给业务。在这种战略下，企业在打造内部API经济的同时，创造的成果可以同时驱动内部和外部的价值。
A successful internal API economy requires IT to decentralize and democratize application development and data access to the business as a whole. In addition, central IT needs to invest in enabling a broader set of developers internally to discover, use and self-serve these assets, so the business can deliver more of their own projects. This changes the relationship between IT and the business.
一个成功的内部API经济，需要技术部门实现分散化管理应用开发，并让数据参与到整体的业务体系里。此外，技术中心需要投资加强更广泛的内部开发、应用和自助服务能力，从而企业可以提供更多自己的项目。这改变了IT和业务之间的关系。
To win in the digital era, companies need to play a larger role in the API economy. We’re all used to the instant connectivity that puts the world at our fingertips. Today, it’s difficult to imagine standing in a long line at the bank to cash a check, or waiting more than 10 minutes for our taxi to arrive. Whereas a mere five years ago that would have been a normal part of our daily lives.
想要在数字化时代取胜，企业需要在API经济领域扮演重大角色。我们都习惯了即时连接，世界在我们指尖。今天，很难想象排着长队在银行兑现支票，或者等候出租车到达超过10分钟。而仅仅在五年前，这是我们日常生活中非常正常的现象。
The unsung hero of our connected world is the modern API. It’s what makes possible all the interactivity that we’ve come to expect and rely upon. It helps drive the speed with which new technology products can be brought to market faster than the competition, establish new market presences quickly and change processes and workflows to fit evolving consumer tastes.
现代化的API连接世界的无名英雄。它让我们期待和依赖的所有交互变得可能。它帮助企业更快的将新技术产品推向市场，并快速建立新的市场格局，改变工作流程来适应不断变化的消费口味。
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这个具体也不是太清楚哈，不断脑补中~