Bryon Kataoka - Digital Transformation and Modernization with IBM API Connect: A practical guide to developing, deploying, and managing high-performance and secure hybrid-cloud APIs

A practical guide to developing, deploying, and managing high-performance and secure hybrid-cloud APIs

Bryon Kataoka

James Brennan

Ashish Aggarwal

BIRMINGHAMMUMBAI

Copyright 2022 Packt Publishing

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To my wife, Cheryl Bertini, who has been my life partner for 36 years. The last 2 years have been difficult, but together we have thrived. To my mentors over my career, Wil Kimura, Lynn Bailey, and Peter Ling, for their career/business coaching and friendship. And finally to Dale Nilsson, who introduced me to his passion for writing books. Now you only play golf and that, my friend, will be my next passion.

Bryon Kataoka

To my wife, Jennifer Brennan, and my three beautiful children, Emily, Patrick, and Madison, who give me the drive and support to do my best to succeed every day. They have stood by my side and encouraged me even though the demands on my time are significant at times. To my parents, who instilled a sense of pride in me, and to God, who has provided me with the ability to learn, grow, and flourish.

James Brennan

To the heavens, for providing me with infinite growth opportunities. To my parents, for their blessings. To my wife, Nidhi, and my children, Dhruv and Devika, for their endless faith, love, and support.

Ashish Aggarwal

Throughout my 20+ years at IBM, I've had the pleasure of working in a wide range of roles in product development, as well as spending several years working onsite with customers as a Software Services Consultant. A formative part of that development timeline was my role as a Technical Lead through the first five releases of IBM API Connect from 2012 until I moved to another role in the Integration space at the beginning of 2017. I then returned to the API Connect space in 2020 as the Senior Technical Staff Member for the Cloud Pak for Integration, of which API Connect is a key part.

There is a consistent theme across all the product releases and client engagements over that time. This theme is the appetite and enthusiasm our customers have for content that goes beyond the typical task-based description we provide in the formal product documentation to illustrate not just the "what" but also the "why" of a product. By incorporating practical experience and lessons learned from real-world project scenarios we significantly enhance the value of the information we provide. I saw this personally in 2016 when I wrote the first API Connect Deployment Whitepaper, which presented practical guidance on high availability production deployment scenarios, based on my experiences with customers and leadership of the API Connect SaaS service. The emphatically positive reaction to that publication cemented in my mind the value of practitioner-driven product content.

Fast-forward five years and that's why I'm excited to introduce you to this major work from Bryon, Jim, and Ashish. Their combined track record of successfully delivering API Connect and DataPower gateway solutions to customers makes them the ideal candidates to codify their knowledge so that everyone can benefit from it! Between them, they have decades of experience and have led implementation projects across the spectrum of customers and industries, and you will see the fruits of that labor permeate through these pages.

As a reader, you'll find this book provides a single reference that covers the entire breadth of the API Connect product. It begins with the business context in which the product should be used, before progressing through the basic introductory concepts. Having established these foundations, the majority of the book then provides detailed and easily reusable examples of the powerful features that will enable you to be successful in your API journey.

My current role as CTO for the IBM Integration portfolio gives me broad visibility across the Integration space, and it is examples like these where our partners and practitioners share their experience that makes me truly excited to be a part of the IBM ecosystem. It's my sincere hope that you find this book a highly-valuable companion to your use of API Connect and that it enables you to accelerate the successful delivery of your digital transformation projects!

Matt Roberts

Chief Technology Officer, IBM Integration

Winchester, UK

As Trusted Advisor and CTO of the iSOA Group, Bryon Kataoka has established a reputation as a leader in architecture and technology, focused around IBM API Connect, Red Hat OpenShift, and DataPower gateways. Bryon has developed his style of professionalism, where education and knowledge is the driving innovative force to success. Bryon participates in IBM certification exams, has presented at conferences, and has authored The WebSphere Application Server Bible. He is a father of four, a home winemaker with his own vineyard, a decent golfer, and practices blues guitar.

As an owner and lead consultant of McIndi Solutions, James Brennan is a recognized leader in the DataPower and IBM API Connect space. Jim has participated in developing IBM certification exams, has spoken at several IBM internal and customer-facing conferences, and is a coauthor of the IBM WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliance Handbook, as well as the individual IBM DataPower volumes available. He is an accomplished musician with a prior career in musical performance, a father of three, and a fitness enthusiast.

As the CEO and Technology Advisor of ANDD Techservices (USA and India), Ashish Aggarwal leads complex application modernization, integration, and API/SOA enablement projects. He has helped numerous industries, including telecoms, E&U, e-tailers, BFSI, and animal disease management implement API/SOA-oriented solutions. He has extensive architectural, operational, and development experience in multiple IBM integration products; for example, APIC, DataPower, ACE/IIB, and MQ. Ashish is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Delhi University.