How to Increase Your IT Efficiency

IT efficiency is critical in the enterprise. But, what does IT efficiency mean? And how can you increase IT efficiency?

That's what we break down in this blog. 

What Is IT Efficiency?

IT efficiency is the process of increasing productivity through automation. The goal of IT efficiency is to increase ROI in the enterprise. 

One key area to examine when it comes to IT efficiency is your APIs. 

Why IT Efficiency Is Important

IT efficiency is important because it impacts your ability to deliver quality to your customers.

This is particularly true when it comes to managing enterprise APIs.

Even if your organization only uses a handful of APIs at the moment, that is likely to change over time. The API channel is rapidly becoming the main outlet through which businesses are reaching their customers and partners. As a result, enterprises are seeing a rapid growth in their API products — and a higher cadence of API product updates.

While that success, in itself, is great news, it also brings about challenges and concerns.

• How do you ensure the quality and consistency of APIs as you scale?
• How do you maintain security and compliance with critical requirements like corporate security policies and, potentially, the need to fulfill obligations stemming from external regulation?

So, how will you keep everything in check — and manage IT efficiency? After all, APIs are not just interface definitions. They may actually provide access to valuable enterprise resources. And they must be configured properly — preferably with a level of consistency across the enterprise to allow more effective review and runtime monitoring.

Learn about using tools to secure and optimize processes at scale with Perforce's enterprise automation 101 >> 

How to Increase IT Efficiency

The best way to increase IT efficiency is through your API strategy. 

1. Assess Your APIs

Consider the following aspects of your APIs:

• API interface: What does the API offer or do?
• API implementation: Where is the API available, and how is it used?
• API access and security: How do you ensure only authorized clients have access?
• API licenses: Under what agreed conditions can the API be accessed? (Subscription or API monetization plans, for example).

To ensure IT efficiency, you need to make it easier for a developer to use or consume the API.

2. Identify the Keys to IT Efficiency

Next, you'll need to identify the keys to your IT efficiency objectives. What's driving API adoption for your business? How will that impact IT efficiency?

The illustration below shows how to do this. 

• Speed: As your APIs increase, you need to accelerate the delivery process.
• Repeatability: As APIs update, you need to be able to repeat your processes — and reuse APIs.
• Consistency: As your business grows, you need to ensure consistency in your APIs.
• Compliance: Regulations, like PCI, impact every enterprise — and your APIs need to be compliant, too. 

3. Implement Automation

The only way you can achieve IT efficiency is through automation. 

Look for common tasks, steps, or elements. Capture those into automated configurations, such as templates and policies. You can ensure consistency by applying configurations across collections of similar APIs. For example, APIs that are classified as “critical” will automatically have a specific set of policies applied.

By doing this, you enable repeatability, accelerate speed, and ensure compliance. 

Increase IT Efficiency With Akana

APIs are the key to increasing IT efficiency. And with the Akana API platform, you can easily add automation and increase IT efficiency for your business. 

With Akana, you can:

1. Manage your APIs — and make them easier to use in your Akana developer portal.
2. Identify the key drivers of IT efficiency using Akana API analytics tools.
3. Implement automation by integrating into your wider environment.

Automating the API product delivery process is key. This reduces the amount of manual configuration, which is bound to increase delivery speed while ensuring quality and consistency. Akana can integrate into your CI/CD environment, including with test automation.

How Akana Increases IT Efficiency

By using Akana to manage your APIs, you can increase IT efficiency and API ROI.

That's because Akana delivers:

• Less manual configuration: avoid errors, ensure consistency, compliance.
• Effective repeatability of the API delivery process when managing at scale.
• Governed promotion ensures consistency across stages.
• Approval processes mean nothing gets into production without stakeholder approval.

Want to see for yourself? Request your free, 30-day trial today. 

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