WSO2 Named a Leader in the “API Management Solutions, Q3 2020” Report by Independent Research Firm
- Nuwan Dias
- VP and Deputy CTO - WSO2
The Forrester Wave™: API Management Solutions, Q3 2020 report was just released, August 4, 2020. We’re thrilled to announce that WSO2 has been named a Leader! You can download the report here.
Vendors participating in The Forrester Wave™: API Management Solutions Wave, Q3 2020 report1 were evaluated on 26 criteria, grouped into three categories: market presence, strategy, and current offering. WSO2 received the highest possible score in 11 total criteria. Specifically, WSO2 received the highest possible scores in the planned enhancements, commercial model, and geographic presence criteria. We believe our investments made to the product to help customers around the globe in different industry verticals - such as banking, healthcare, finance, retail, and so on - have contributed heavily to the platform’s growth over the past few years.
API Strategy
At WSO2, we believe APIs are a strategic investment to any organization, irrespective of which industry they’re in. As a result, APIs should be looked at both as a technical enabler and as a business driver of any organization. WSO2’s strategy for APIs and API management is therefore focused on:
- Enabling organizations to realize the strategic importance of APIs and helping them build and expose these APIs in ways that their business potential can be fully reached.
- Building capabilities that make it possible for APIs to become a strong and modern technical enabler of an organization’s services.
In WSO2’s vendor profile, the Forrester report2 states, “Notable features include GraphQL publishing support, deep microservice platform integration, good API product packaging, and full application integration features in WSO2’s Enterprise Integrator product.”
Last year, WSO2’s API Management platform introduced full support for publishing GraphQL APIs. The use of GraphQL is increasing in popularity as organizations strive to provide better customer experiences through their applications. The platform makes it much easier to take the power of GraphQL APIs to its consumers through finer governance, usage plans, and specialized security policies.
Similarly, the platform’s microgateway and its deep integration into the Kubernetes ecosystem, service mesh, and CI/CD flows enable customers to leap ahead into a cloud-agnostic and cloud-native API landscape that operates with high efficiency.
Flexibility and the Importance of a Platform
In the report3, Forrester states that, “APIs drive agility to optimize customer experiences, create dynamic digital ecosystems, achieve operational excellence, and build platform business models.”
The WSO2 API Management platform’s architecture and flexibility have been key strengths from the beginning. This has helped many of our customers to build world-class systems that operate at scale. Importantly, in evaluating the platform, the Forrester report4 cites that, “The fully open source nature of the product adds an additional layer of flexibility, should customers need it, in addition to offering a free-forever path to getting started with API management through open source self-support.”
Every business organization aspires to stay ahead of its competition. As such, a software solution that is flexible enough to meet both its current and future business needs is critical. The flexibility offered by the WSO2 API management platform, combined with the creativity of our customers, makes it possible for them to build market-leading solutions and keep ahead of the competition in the process.
For most of our customers. API management has started off as a small initiative. This could either be for internal API exposure that connects different systems and applications or for building a mobile application for customers, to name a couple of examples. But, soon after doing this, they realize the true value and potential of how APIs could benefit their organizations in many ways. Customers then make API management a general practice across their organizations. At which point, they come across many new hurdles. Some of the most common ones include:
- Connecting different authentication systems and providers in their organization with these APIs
- Integrating different systems and orchestrating messages across them
- Supporting both micro and monolithic architectures
- Connecting cloud and on-premises components into a single management system
The WSO2 API Management Platform is part of the WSO2 Integration Platform, which also includes WSO2 Enterprise Integrator and WSO2 Identity Server. Together, these seamlessly integrated solutions support these advanced requirements as needed. We believe this is why the Forrester report stated that5, “The solution particularly well suits buyers with strategies that combine integration, APIs, and microservices with a desire for the benefits of open source.”
Getting Started With WSO2 API Manager
Are you keen on getting started with the API management platform that is recognized as a Leader6 by Forrester Research, Inc.? Here are some links that will help you:
- WSO2 API Manager
- The Forrester Wave™: API Management Solutions, Q3 2020 report
- WSO2 Customer Success Stories
Got any questions, or would you like to get in touch? Reach me via Twitter at @nuwandias, or get in touch with WSO2 at https://wso2.com/contact/.
1 - 6Forrester Research, Inc. “The Forrester Wave™: API Management Solutions, Q3 2020,” by Randy Heffner with Christopher Mines, Abigail Livingston, and Kara Hartig, August 4, 2020.