Cloud and big data integrator Talend has joined the OpenAPI Initiative (OAI) intending to standardise how APIs are described.
The partnership aims to further API Standards and Interoperability, which are highly seen as the ‘glue’ within modern data architectures.
As an OAI member, Talend aims to look for effective ways of promoting and increasing the visibility and use of API standards inside the open source ecosystem. In doing so, the company will augment their use within the Talend Data Fabric platform aiming to benefit customers ad partners.
Talend SVP of products Ciaran Dynes said the company has a vested interest in building a community-driven API governance organisation that is supported by major vendors and business actors.
“As the API ecosystem extends to the enterprise and the Data ecosystem, our collaboration with the OAI around API standards will promote interoperability, foster closer collaboration, and ultimately further developer innovation and success,” Dynes said.
The OAI, an open governance structure under the Linux Foundation, seeks to create, develop and promote a vendor neutral description format. The OAI initiative was founded in 2015 with a goal to provide an opportunity for the API community to find a common language that would facilitate the integration of several API tools from commercial and open source vendors.
New additions to the OAI after its establishment were Apiary, which leads the API Blueprint project and now belongs to Oracle, and MuleSoft, the company that manages the RAML project.
“The OpenAPI Initiative is on an important mission to define and promote a vendor neutral description format understandable by humans and machines,” Ole Lensmar, Chairman of the OAI Business Governance Board, said. “Restlet was one of the founding members of our organization and now that it has joined with Talend’s broader data integration portfolio, we expect new, more advanced applications of the OpenAPI Specification to emerge that will help drive the full API lifecycle.”
Talend said the digital, competitive marketplace currently has several drivers including an omnichannel customer experience that adapts to varying needs of customers and helps distribute apps, mobile and digital devices fuelled by APIs.
Other forces include an exponential growth in the volume and diversity of data collected by devices and other systems incorporated into analytics systems through ingestion APIs; an open source and cloud-based technology ecosystem.
Talend noted that almost every application leverages APIs to connect to corporate data sources, third-party data services, or other applications.
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As an OAI member, the company will work on identifying several ways to promote API standards, increase their visibility in the open source ecosystems, and increase their availability on the Talend Data Fabric platform, allowing customers and partners to benefit from it.
Talend will also become a member of the Linux Foundation, which provides support for open source communities via financial and intellectual resources, infrastructure, services, events, and training.
OAI has over 30 members, including Google, IBM, Microsoft, SAP and other leaders in the API ecosystem.
