By using API’s – a set of routines, protocols and tools for building software applications – application developers no longer have to buy technology software or hardware. Instead, they can simply plug into a growing open ecosystem of API-driven services. It is simple to integrate, and saves time and money for new developers.
There are three main challenges with existing API configurations that directly impact any mobile app performance:
1.) Response Time – Since API responses are usually personalized, its content cannot be cached by the CDN. Some of the responses could be sizeable and include dozens of images that will have to be downloaded on a slow mobile connection. This impacts the API response time and eventually the mobile app.
2.) Reliability – Mobile networks are less reliable than wired networks with Packet Loss and error rates that are 10-20 times higher. This affects not only the app API response time but most importantly its failure rates. Mobile developers have to factor into their code fail conditions and a proper way to handle each one of them, which can complicate things.
3.) Server Load – There are two sources for high server load: (A) Failed transactions due to network error will usually follow by API call retry, keeping the server busier than it should be; and (B) API calls over slow connections means that the server has to keep connections open longer, consuming more resources than needed.
