CA Southern Africa, the sole sub-Saharan Africa representative of CA Technologies, a Broadcom company, has revealed the results of the KuppingerCole 2021 Leadership Compass for API Management and Security. In this evaluation, Broadcom’s Layer7 API Management solution was named as an overall market leader due to its product, innovation and market leadership. KuppingerCole specialises in API management.
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for API management was estimated in 2020 to be worth US$1.4 billion, but is projected to reach a revised size of US$7 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 29.7% over the analysis period.
KuppingerCole has long recognised the API economy as one of the most important current IT trends. Rapidly growing demand for exposing and consuming APIs, which enables organisations to create new business models and connect with partners and customers, has tipped the industry towards adopting lightweight RESTful APIs, which are commonly used today. The report notes that unfortunately, many businesses tend to underestimate the potential security challenges of opening up their APIs without a security strategy and infrastructure in place.
Popular emerging technologies such as the internet of things (IOT) or software-defined computing infrastructure (SDCI), which rely significantly on API ecosystems, are also bringing new security challenges with them.
The report notes that creating a well-planned strategy and reliable infrastructure to expose their business functionality securely to be consumed by partners, customers and developers is a significant challenge that has to be addressed not just at the gateway level, but along the whole information chain from backend systems to endpoint applications.
The Leadership Compass provides an overview of the market segment of API management solutions, covering quite a broad selection of vendors and an exhaustive array of features expected from a robust API management solution. Three specific leadership ratings are compiled to create an overall leadership rating.
By the end of the evaluation, it was clear that Layer7 API Management is an overall leader in this space.
KuppingerCole sees Broadcom’s Layer7 portfolio as providing a complete solution for practically all API management scenarios imaginable, with a strong focus on enterprise-scale business-driven integration projects, making it particularly suitable for enterprise customers with long-term API strategies.
According to Greg Williams, Solution Specialist and Strategic Alliance Manager at CA Southern Africa, within Broadcom, the Layer7 brand now represents the new unified approach towards integration and security for the entire digital infrastructure of large modern enterprises, with a stronger focus on business relevant areas such as cyber risk management, digital transformation or privacy protection rather than individual technology stacks.
“The report is described by Broadcom as accurate, factual and acknowledges its fully featured and mature product offering. Our position clearly reflects Layer7’s strong customer base, our partner channel and our global reach,” says Williams.
The company’s entire API management and security portfolio is now offered as a single SKU as well as standalone solutions. The solution uses a Continuous API Management model, which is the evolution of the full life cycle management approach. “This single offering replaces hundreds of former SKUs and provides a full range of API development, testing, discovery, management and monitoring, as well as security capabilities across on-premises, multicloud, containerised and mobile environments. Moreover, Broadcom’s API Academy offers the only industry-agnostic, free API certification programme with multiple courses and exams,” Williams concludes.
