Application Programming Interface (API) is a tool that allows developers to build robust APIs and web applications, so that applications communicate with each other. APIs are used to retrieve, send, and exchange information from various web services. To keep things running smoothly, reliable web/API monitoring is required.

Without realizing it, we use APIs almost every day. For example, when booking airline tickets, shopping online, to checking the weather today. Then how do web and API monitoring in modern applications? Check out the full explanation below. 

Why Web/API Needs to be Monitored?

APIs are ubiquitous and involved in almost everything we touch digitally today. Given this, it is important for developers to monitor APIs, especially business-critical APIs or APIs that external users can access and use. Monitoring APIs for internal users is also important, but not as critical as APIs that external users can access. 

Application performance is highly dependent on the state of the API. Small businesses may not need thorough API monitoring yet, but large businesses need continuous insight into API performance as they handle thousands of internal employees and many more external customers. 

Monitoring the web/API ensures that companies can immediately find out what issues are causing downtime, how the API is performing, and whether the API is actually failing. Every point of the API cannot be monitored manually, hence the need for API monitoring tools that are helpful in performing various repetitive tasks automatically. 

With the help of API monitoring tools, downtime can be prevented. By doing so, the user experience will be improved significantly. Today, user experience is critical to a company’s success, especially with social media making it easy for customers to spread both positive and negative reviews. A good API will satisfy customers. 

Advantages of API Monitoring

As mentioned earlier, APIs are increasingly needed as they have grown over the past decade as more and more modern applications become available on the internet. We use applications every day, so if their performance is not thoroughly monitored, the performance of the applications we use daily will degrade, slow down, and even become unusable. 

If an app slows down, users will easily look for other app options that offer the same thing. Companies can lose customers simply because they do not properly monitor the APIs of modern applications. 

Nowadays, there are API monitoring tools that can ease the burden on human resources with sophisticated methods. Not only that, investing in API monitoring solutions is also more cost-effective in the future. 

Guide to Monitoring Web/API Work in Modern Applications

APIs can be used to improve user experience on many levels. Monitoring web/API work in modern applications can generally be divided into 3 levels, namely: 

API Monitoring for Beginners

Ensuring that the API remains functional and available across all types of traffic is the basic reason why it should be constantly monitored. Teams spend a lot of time, effort, and resources to create great applications. Usually, problems start to arise when traffic is heavy, but depending on the type of API being used, problems can actually occur at any time. 

Monitoring response time availability or latency is the basic form of monitoring implemented. API monitoring comes in many forms and levels, but availability is the most straightforward and simple, making it best for beginners. The goal of API monitoring is basically to be aware of problems. The worst that can happen is that customer complaints start. 

Monitoring internally is usually not enough, especially if the application is growing. Everything may be working fine internally, but when the API is checked from the user’s side, there are problems that need to be resolved immediately. Set up external monitoring from the user’s location or region. That way, the API management team will get a better understanding of API performance. 

Intermediate API Monitoring

Taking the basic idea of API monitoring one step further, mid-level API monitoring may be necessary for APIs that include multiple API calls or multi-step procedures. Monitoring the response from the API endpoint alone may not always give a clear picture of what is actually happening. 

Even if you get an OK response, there could be problems with the steps in between. An error may have occurred in the middle, even if everything on the surface seems fine. If you monitor the entire process, there may be buried errors that are less visible. If not looked for, then the team won’t really know what’s going on with the API. 

Many APIs now require some level of authorization and authentication to ensure secure data exchange. To keep APIs secure, it is necessary to use API monitoring that supports basic and intermediate authentication methods. 

Advanced API Monitoring

Many still think API monitoring is the same as web monitoring. Just because everything looks fine on the web page, it doesn’t mean that everything is working properly. In fact, API monitoring is not all the same as that. But there are similarities, namely API and web monitoring both consist of many factors that make up their overall performance. 

When an API looks fine, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of its layers are fine, which is why specialized API monitoring tools are needed. In order to fully understand API performance, it is necessary to apply advanced monitoring techniques that match how each company’s API is used. This includes using tools that can support API inspection at any time, for 24 hours. 

In addition, APIs used in larger-scale businesses require monitoring tools that only monitor requests and responses. It’s important to choose a monitoring tool that is capable of monitoring some of the things below:

  • authentication method
  • request type
  • time threshold
  • content validation
  • headers
  • custom scripts
  • notification mechanism. 

All of the above factors need to be monitored and configured to ensure the API monitoring tool is functioning thoroughly and is notified immediately if something goes wrong. Finally, it would be even better if the monitoring tool is capable of monitoring from an external location to ensure that the company can simulate as close to the user as possible. For modern applications to run well and smoothly without downtime, reliable web/API monitoring is needed. Netmonk from Telkom Indonesia comes with Netmonk Prime, which provides a comprehensive web/API monitoring solution. Already used by various large companies in Indonesia, just visit the Netmonk website for more product info.