As new technology trends emerge, it’s always reported that upstart companies who are “more nible and can move faster” than big ole IBM tend to get early leadership in new markets. So we are more proud than ever to be recognized for our newly crowned leadership position in the only Gartner magic quadrant that covers API Management—the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Services Governance. In this quadrant report, Gartner coins the term “Application Services Governance,” to encompass the technologies of APIs, API management, SOA, and service management, demonstrating their belief (and our IBM viewpoint) that the two areas (APIs and SOA) constitute a single market.
So while there is lots of noise about the some upstart competitors like Apigee, Mashery, and Layer 7 in the API management space, IBM is the one cited by Gartner as the clear leader in both our strategy and our ability to execute.
But that’s not all. The emergence of an Application Services Governance segment signals the renaissance of Service Orientation. It’s the reinforcement that exposing and managing services – and their latest incarnation as web APIs – is the foundation to support mobile and cloud initiatives. With the emergence of the API economy, and the need for our new capabilities for developer self-service, and service metering and analytics, IBM is uniquely positioned to lead the API and Service Management space.
To that end, we are continuing to strengthen the linkage of our WebSphere SOA and API management products – IBM DataPower, WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR), and IBM API Management – to simplify integration and deliver on the value of service orientation in an API-centric world.
This leadership deserves a special shout-out to Nicolas Robbe and his extended team – he’s our leader for the API Economy solutions and has done an incredible job building our portfolio of offerings and establishing IBM as the clear leader in the API market.
Mike Riegel's Blog 