Lots of interesting stuff happened this week... let's take a look!
The State of the API
Postman released its 2023 State of the API report this week. This report highlighted several interesting areas. APIs generate revenue for most of the respondents, and the pricing of APIs has become a crucial factor. The outlook for API investments has improved, and API-first leaders have also grown by a significant amount. According to the report, most API developers are using AI to help code, so continued focus on AI seems crucial. The report also found that layoffs affecting software engineers have had a big impact on the quality of APIs, where affected companies had a significant decrease in quality. The last main point is that while API security is improving, there is still a lot of room to be better.
The part of this report about how developers spend their time was interesting. Outdated documentation is the biggest issue when a developer leaves? Not surprised!
Seeing that layoffs impact API quality and APIs are a growth area for revenue, it makes sense to me that developers focused on APIs are a benefit to a technology firm. What are your thoughts on how this report highlights the importance of developers?
The other interesting point here is that most API developers are using AI these days, and the report lists many ways that AI is used. Do any of these ring true to you?
Network Automation to Grow Through 2028
A market research paper was published on Wednesday that estimates that the network automation market will continue to grow at a rapid rate. The research suggests that the network automation market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.22% through 2028, from the current market of $21.2 billion to $50.82 billion in 2028. While North America is the largest market, the Asia-Pacific region will be the fastest-growing market. The report found that the growth of hybrid work environments has put an "unforeseen strain on networking technologies and causing bandwidth and security concerns because of increased internet traffic," driving global network automation projects. Another interesting observation is that organizations are looking to machine learning and artificial intelligence to help build these more autonomous networks.
It's good news to us in the networking industry that this area is set for such great growth. Is it surprising to you to hear that so much of this growth is because of hybrid work?
Hybrid Workers to CIOs: Buy Me Gear!
New information was released this week by Apogee Corporation (part of HP) about how people manage in the modern workplace, and there seems to be a difference of opinion between how workers and executives see the remote/hybrid work environment. Apogee released a new e-book on this topic, with many CIOs believing that home distractions were the biggest impediments to productivity, while many employees found that their productivity was limited by "inefficient, slow, and unreliable technology."
While it's disappointing to hear about the disconnect between executives and workers, it is interesting to put together this report and the market research from the previous story. It sounds like there is plenty of need happening in the hybrid workspace. What technological improvements would make your work life better?
The Fight is On!
Last week, the tech world buzzed with the challenge to an MMA-style cage match between Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Telsa/Twitter head honcho Elon Musk. Elon is larger than Zuck, which might play to his advantage, but Zuck has been training and competing in jiu jitsu, so he's already got skills and fitness. On Tuesday, Musk upped his game by adding famous MMA fighter Georges St. Pierre to his coaching staff. While many are excited about the prospects of this fight, Elon's mama isn't one of them.
OK, fight fans... Zuck or Musk?
