Lumen launches Public Sector API Center which offers easy to use APIs

Public sector mandates to modernize IT are, in part, a way to make sure the public sector can keep up with the relentless advance of technology and take advantage of what it offers. That requires rethinking a variety of architectural and process approaches. Application development is a key part of that rethink. Traditionally, an application’s capabilities were limited by whatever was crafted into the code itself. Numerous tradeoffs were made to avoid bloated applications that could easily bog down in execution.

This changed with the advent of the services architecture approach to applications. Instead of hard coding everything, certain capabilities can reside elsewhere and be called into service by an application programming interface (API). Essentially, this allows software to talk to software or machines to talk to machines, sharing only what’s necessary to execute a task.

The Lumen platform of adaptive networking, edge cloud, connected security and collaboration services provides the foundation for next-generation technology for the public sector. It is also a gateway to services available from our suppliers through APIs.

That’s why Lumen is making our APIs available to our public sector customers through a specially crafted, secure API Center. One of the main ways we’re making it easy to use our APIs is to bundle the API specifications, sample payload, test cases, sample code in various programming languages and all necessary documentation together. All these artifacts related to API are kept together and any update in those areas is reflected immediately in the center. We can build applications for you out of these APIs, of course, and we’re happy to do so. This integrated way to a self-service approach offers some flexibility for our public sector customers that’s worth exploring.

Designing the future

We are rapidly moving to a world where machines talk to each other, pieces of software talk to each other, tiny sensors are embedded in everything making up the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) provides monitoring, self-diagnosis of problems and analytics to improve the overall system. What applications or services can you imagine in such a world?

With all that possibility, it could be a daunting proposition to encapsulate all that capability in a single application. APIs provide a way to access pre-built functionality – both large and small – without having to design everything yourself or to reinvent a capability that already exists whether you designed it or not. An API is a structured way for pieces of technology to talk to each other. This makes Lumen’s massive capabilities available much more easily – it essentially becomes infrastructure as code. Our source code-documentation integration makes it possible for you to understand and use our APIs as well as stay in synch with any updates. An API is not entirely consumed once it’s embedded into an application. The next application can call the same API without modification.

As technology moves faster, this flexibility also makes it possible for public sector IT to experiment with application development. Scarce IT resources can stay focused on the core mission of any application and simply call in ancillary capabilities as needed.

Our APIs are secured in several ways. Users have to register to gain access to many of them and that access can be further restricted to only certain users who must undergo authentication for access. Private keys can encrypt payloads for further protection.

Explore the center

The Lumen Public Sector API Center is now available. We invite you to explore the capabilities and open an account. We’ve made it easy for you to sign up and get started. It’s a way we’re making Lumen resources even easier for you to use. In the next blog post, we will deep dive into how Lumen is using microservices architecture and making it easier for both clients and developers to use and develop APIs.

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