Weekly API Evangelist Governance (Guidance)
I have been working to standardize the plans and pricing from the perspective of an API producer for years, but now I am living at the intersection of plans, pricing, and rate limits from the consumer perspective. I find myself at this intersection just as the artificial intelligence conversations are applying stress at this layer. Now is a good time to be investing in standardizing and automating how we manage plans, pricing, and rate limits across the APIs we use.
Plans
I have been documenting the plans for all of the APIs I have profiled for API Evangelist over the years. While there are common aspects of the plans for SaaS providers with APIs, there are also a varying mix of information that defines how we can integrate and consume with 3rd party APIs. Often times APIs are directly related to SaaS plans, but other times will be something defined as part of rate limits as opposed to SaaS billing, but operate within the constraints of your SaaS user seat.
Pricing
The pricing for a lot of SaaS providers begins with a free and per user model, with a mix of tiered and pay as you go models covering what it will cost to integrate and use APIs. There is no current approach to standardizing the pricing for APIs—there is an existing approach in support of service level agreements for APIs, but we are going to need a lot more standardizing around specifically the business of our APIs—it is more of a priority than SLAs.
Elements
One of the most difficult aspects of plans and pricing for SaaS and the APIs they offer is understanding what you are actually getting. The features, elements, and other business and technical details of API consumption is far from standardized. There is a lot of different words and phrasing, as well as approaches to how different elements are bundled with each SaaS plan and the APIs offered.
Add-Ons
Another dimension of of the plans and pricing for SaaS, as well as the relationship they have with APIs, is how you can add-on, plugin, and connect different features, services, or integrations into what is being offered. There isn’t much standardization when it comes to what is offered and charged for as part of add-ons to the plans being offered, making it difficult to compare what is being offered, and managed what things cost.
Rate limits
The rate limits imposed on top of the APIs we depend upon are bearing the brunt of the current artificial intelligence automation occurring. Rate limits are imposed on top of API consumption but the lines aren’t always clearly drawn between rate limits and plans or pricing. Like plans and pricing, rate limits is needing much standardization otherwise we won’t be able to properly realize all of the automation we are envisioning right now.
Multiple APIs
Everything I am talking about can be a lot to manage when it comes to a single API, but it is something that really gets out of control with each new API added into the mix. Managing the plans, pricing, elements, add-ons, and rate limits across many different APIs, used across many different applications, developed across many different teams is where standardization at this intersection is going to be essential to scaling business automation.
Usage
Being able to see your API consumption across many different APIs, in the context of the plans, pricing, and rate limits you operate within is near impossible today. These SaaS plans, pricing, and API rate limits are the modern business digital supply chain. As this supply chain expands and grows, being able to see, understand, and optimize the plans, pricing, and rate limits is going to rapidly become a top business priority.
Billing
I think there is one reason that will push companies to begin to care about this intersection—money. Cost management and optimization across the many different SaaS solutions, and optimizing how digital resources are being used or not used will be required to realize all of the automation being promised right now. Without a clear handle on the billing layer across all of the APIs we are depending upon, or should be using, automation will be difficult.
Security
After the money, security will be a top concern for businesses at this intersection. Maning encryption, authentication, authorization, and rate limits consistently across many different APIs will define security across data, application, and cloud integrations. Security will be a top concern, but it will always play second fiddle to what we are spending on SaaS providers, even when it will cost a company a lot of money whenever there is a breach.
Standardization
The intersection represents where the work is needed to automate APIs. If this layer doesn’t get standardized we won’t be able to scale for any application. There is a lot of attention being paid to the technical layer of API integration and automation right now, but not a lot of time spend on these business details. We are working with different companies to understand this intersection across the top tier SaaS providers they are depending on—let us know if you would like to learn more and talk about this intersection in the context of what your organization needs.
“The bottom line is determined by those at the top.” ― Ljupka Cvetanova, The New Land