W. George Glass VP, Architecture and APIs, TM Forum TM Forum 1

Transcription

1 TM FORUM INSIGHT: Understanding the Value of Open APIs for Cloud-Based Services What are the benefits for CSPs in embracing the Platform Business model? Integrating Open APIs to support new service offerings Achieving zero integration and making the transition to self-service APIs W. George Glass VP, Architecture and APIs, TM Forum 2018 TM Forum 1

2 What are the benefits for CSPs in embracing the Platform Business model? What is a platform? (in the context of this presentation) A Platform consists of a set of related systems, processes, people and data that deliver (or expose) a set of business services via a standard set of API s. Follow a logical model (Frameworx etom, SID) to determine where the boundaries of your platforms need to be. Enables the building of components that provide the platform services to be implemented independently of each other. A means of sub-dividing, or logically partitioning, your architecture into sets of related business services, provided by the people, processes and systems associated with your IT estate. Is represented by an API, or set of API s, which expose the business services of the platform in a consistent and predictable manner The API s can hide the complexity of a platform, and in fact you may not even have a platform behind your API s. We have used this model extensively to transform legacy and build a platform incrementally 2018 TM Forum 2

3 Benefits of Platforms within an overall Architecture Loose coupling enables you to build the platforms independently of each other Define a standard means of communicating between platforms to minimise integration costs API hub/esb Identify a set of appropriate metrics to measure and track the progress of your transformation API s built, systems rationalised, cost reduced, time to market reduced, functionality delivered increased etc. BT s platform based Matrix architecture Develop a standard enterprise data model (based on SID) to enable frictionless data transfers between platforms Determine what your core business services are (Open API s), and build them to support your standard business processes (etom) Data drive your product definitions and rules to ensure your architecture remains service agnostic 2018 TM Forum 3

4 Configurable and extensible platforms Plug and Play platforms Are you building a complete platform based architecture or just trying to capture a niche in the market and offer a set of platform based services? Are you transforming an existing business to survive or are you building a brand new business? Platforms enable you to rapidly adjust to new business or financial models, utilising API s to construct reusable process blocks or platform sub-assemblies that deliver service components. Is the service being offered a transactional fire and forget type service with a binary success criteria (simplest) or is it a hybrid, complex amalgamation of people, processes, systems and data that has an extended lifecycle with persistent data and an evolving status that traverses multiple components and returns context related responses? API s enable the loose coupling of platforms and the tight integration of services. The API works in the context of a business process with predefined pre-conditions and post-conditions. The API is configurable via data or rules driven parameters, data driven providing a simpler starting point where the API supports the same business function just with different input parameters e.g. calculating VAT where the VAT rate can vary, or rules driven where the input parameters allow the execution of different functions depending on the parameters input e.g. complex product decomposition into different service components depending on the product ordered. API s are often nested in nature, with one API calling other pre-existing API s to drive up reuse and build more complex hybrid services that can be represented by a higher level API TM Forum 4

5 Integrating Open APIs to support new service offerings Manage Authentication showing how it could evolve from a simple identity check to a full two factor authentication capability Manage Authentication Authentication type (id, pwd, 2FA) Authenticate( ) Initial authentication service just check a customers identity Customer Identity check Customer information (name, address, acct no) Name Address Acct Check ( ) 2018 TM Forum 5

6 Integrating Open APIs to support new service offerings Manage Authentication - password based authentication to check a customers identity. Manage Authentication Authentication type (id, pwd, 2FA) Authenticate( ) Switch based on authentication type Customer Identity check Customer information (name, address, acct no) Name Address Acct Check ( ) Password check Authentication type (id, pwd,2fa) Customer Password Password Check ( ) 2018 TM Forum 6

7 Integrating Open APIs to support new service offerings Manage Authentication - showing a full two factor authentication capability. Two Factor authentication Manage Authentication Authentication type (id, pwd, 2FA) Authenticate( ) Customer Identity check Customer information (name, address, acct no) Name Address Acct Check ( ) Switch based on authentication type Password check Authentication type (id, pwd, 2FA) Customer Password Password Check ( ) Call password check Record password check result and run secure code check Customer Password Password and Secure code Check ( ) Secure code Secure code check Generate code Secure Code Check ( ) If password check and secure code check okay then PASS, else FAIL 2018 TM Forum 7

8 Integrating Open APIs to support new service offerings Manage Authentication - showing a full two factor authentication capability. Two Factor authentication Manage Authentication Authentication type (id, pwd, 2FA) Authenticate( ) Customer Identity check Customer information (name, address, acct no) Name Address Acct Check ( ) Switch based on authentication type Password check Authentication type (id, pwd, 2FA) Customer Password Password Check ( ) Call password check Record password check result and run secure code check Customer Password Password and Secure code Check ( ) Secure code Secure code check Generate code Secure Code Check ( ) If password check and secure code check okay then PASS, else FAIL 2018 TM Forum 8

9 Achieving zero integration and making the transition to self-service APIs What opportunities do platforms offer? The following slides provide a simplified explanation of how platforms and capabilities (utilising Open APIs) can be used to build a service internally within an organisation. An initial internal use of the capabilities is shown A subsequent internal use of some of the platform capabilities is depicted to show how internal product launch agility is achieved The slides then show how that same internal platform capability can be exposed to a 3 rd party/partner within a digital eco-system to develop new capabilities Please note: This is a fictitious use case to explain how platforms and capabilities work! 2018 TM Forum 9

10 Achieving zero integration and making the transition to self-service APIs Platforms within digital eco-systems Digital Content Platform Manage Digital Content ContentType StorageLocation ReadContent( ) WriteContent( ) SearchContent( ) MeasureUsedContent ( ) Read Write Search Measure Storage director Local storage Cloud storage Platform built for the storage of video Provides read, write and search functions Provides monitoring and measuring API s to determine how much storage has been used Can be local storage or cloud based storage 2018 TM Forum 10

11 Achieving Platforms zero within integration digital and eco-systems making the transition to self-service APIs Platforms within digital eco-systems video streaming service We needed to build a capability to store video, enable our customers to watch videos and enable them to search for videos Pricing to customer is based on videos watched. Search for and watch videos Expose/ deliver Search Video producer Write to storage 2018 TM Forum 11

12 Achieving Platforms zero within integration digital and eco-systems making the transition to self-service APIs Platforms within digital eco-systems CCTV product We created a security product that enabled our customers to install CCTV cameras, and for us to store the video streams from the cameras. The needs to be stored locally (security requirement) and the customer needs the ability to search the stored. Pricing is based on how long you store for and how many cameras you have installed Search for and watch videos Expose/ deliver Search CCTV cameras Write to storage 2018 TM Forum 12

13 Achieving Platforms zero within integration digital and eco-systems making the transition to self-service APIs Platforms within a digital eco-systems Facebook storing pictures/videos Facebook users could now search for and retrieve/watch videos and photos that were previously posted on their news feed. We will use cloud based storage to manage capacity on demand Search for and watch videos Expose/ deliver Search Partnering with Facebook we offer the capability to save a photo/video that comes in your newsfeed Video producer Write to storage 2018 TM Forum 13

14 Zero integration and self service APIs A capability is more than an API it can contain people, process, systems and data - Manage Credit Check The credit check capability was implemented using a number of other exposed services, some internal billing and accounts receivable capabilities and a number of external credit check services (SaaS type capabilities) to deliver a consistent and cost effective solution across the IT estates of BT and EE. Customer Mgt Platform If existing customer Yes Billing Platform No Manage Credit Worthiness Customer name Customer address CreditCheck( ) Credit score Credit score If Experian not available Credit score returned if Experian available External/3 rd party Platforms Manual credit check Credit score Billing and AR systems Experian (External SaaS credit check service) External credit check service 2018 TM Forum 14

15 Thank you Call for input to Open API of the week 2018 TM Forum 15