Data center pros dabbling more with API systems, less with wires

Automate rather than add staff

Automated tools enable IT departments to manage the influx of devices without significantly increasing staff. APIs provide the abstraction layer needed to ease software integration and automate more tasks. Without APIs, programming code is tied tightly to particular functions, such as the operating system or a user interface. If a firm changes a system management function, such as the amount of available storage, the IT team has to do the task once for devices running Microsoft Windows and a second time for those systems running Linux. A well-design API empowers data center admins to make the change without worrying about whether the server runs Windows or Linux OS.

Because of an increasing reliance on APIs, systems today are much smarter than they were in the past. Many devices come preconfigured and perform tasks such as automatically setting up their network connections.

Consequently, rather than physically touch every device, data center techs now make virtual connections. They work with API systems, software libraries that enable components -- such as software objects, routines and data structures -- to interact with one another. In effect, APIs transform tasks that humans once did manually into chores that machines complete automatically.

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