IBM prefaced the announcement for its new API Harmony platform by stressing not just the critical importance of APIs for organizations to become more "cognitive" but also the value of the "API Economy", destined to be worth $2.2 trillion by 2018. To exploit the vast potential of APIs—that is, application programming interfaces—while navigating their risks, Big Blue presents API Harmony, a cloud service on the Bluemix Development Platform that acts as a matchmaker of APIs for developers and IT managers to facilitate the process of building new applications. Armed with advanced cognitive technologies like intelligent mapping and graph technology, API Harmony provides a unique developer experience to anticipate what a developer will require to build new apps, make recommendations, show API relationships and identify what is missing. IBM adds that when core information assets are packaged as APIs and shared or sold, enterprises build awareness, increase customer satisfaction through more personalized services and expand partner networks. API Harmony is one of many services and solutions from IBM that provide the foundation for clouds to behave as one, leading to more consistent cloud integration regardless of the cloud infrastructure.
