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April 2022 is already behind us. And when it rains... it pours. 
As bad news befalls the globe – from a persistent conflict in Ukraine to stumbling stock markets – CMS and DXP vendors continue to slug it out. How will tech fare in the coming months with the specter of recession on the horizon? Tough to say, but we'll be watching.  
By most measures, last month was relatively quiet. We saw announcements from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-releases-new-content-services-and-intelligent-automation-product-enhancements/">Hyland</a>, updates from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-announces-updates-to-product-suite-enhances-composable-features-and-innovation-from-acquisitions/">Sitecore</a> around its composable features, and a new partnership between <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/woocommerce-and-pinterest-announce-partnership-offer-new-integration-for-connecting-with-shoppers/">WooCommerce and Pinterest</a>. We followed a few additional stories in April and wrapped them up (as we always do). 
Enjoy the scoop. And you might want to keep an umbrella handy. You never know if the forecast might change. 
<h2>WordPress.com changes pricing and rattles users </h2>
Speaking of rain, WordPress.com has been gathering a few storm clouds by adding some significant <a href="https://wordpress.com/pricing/">price changes to its plans</a>. To add salt to the wound, the changes were apparently <a href="https://rootprivileges.net/2022/04/03/what-are-you-doing-wordpress-com/">unannounced,</a> and many people have been expressing their disappointment. The biggest sly: replacing all its paid options with a single Pro plan. The platform also slashed the storage on its free tier from 3GB to 500MB. Ouch.
Dave Martin, the CEO of WordPress.com, took to <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30896807">Hacker News</a> to address the concerns. As he noted: "You're right to call us out. I did a poor job of sharing context around why we are making change, so I can see how they could come as a shock. I'm sorry! That's on me."
Martin went on to say that more changes were in the works and that this was the first of several phases. He also clarified that no legacy sites or blogs have been affected by these new price changes – so if your site is on an older plan, there should have been no changes to your billing. He mentioned that many of the existing plans were haphazardly added to WordPress.com with no real strategy, making it hard for customers to see at-a-glance why they should choose one plan over another.
That said, it's a classic lesson in the need for transparency. 
<h2>WordPress releases version 6.0, Gutenberg 13.0</h2>
When <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/updates-on-wordcamp-2021-wordpress-5-8-beta-details-and-gutenberg-enhancements/" target="_blank">WordPress 5.8</a> was released in July 2021, it introduced some major features that would pave the way to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/handbook/focuses/full-site-editing/" target="_blank">Full Site Editing (FSE)</a>. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/" target="_blank">WordPress 5.9 Josephine</a> took that to the next level, putting users in control of the whole experience of the FSE’s visual editing capabilities. 
Now, WordPress 6.0 is almost here, making it the second<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/releasing-major-versions/" target="_blank"> major release</a> of 2022. While the 6.0 beta version arrived in mid-April, it is expected to be<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-0/" target="_blank"> released on May 24, 2022</a>.
While we’re waiting for the release of WordPress 6.0, WordPress released another update to Gutenberg on April 14.
<img style="max-width:900px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/05/featured-image-in-cover.png" alt="Featured Image in Cover" />
The major updates include text selection across blocks, cover blocks with feature images, new responsive layouts for the Groups, Rows, and Stacks, and customizable borders to make your blocks stand out. 
There are also many other<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/04/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-0-14-april/" target="_blank"> notable improvements</a> that are worth checking out. 
<h2>WP Engine accelerates headless WordPress innovation with launch of new plans and Atlas Blueprints</h2>
<img style="max-width:900px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/05/wp-engine-atlas-blueprint.webp" alt="WP-Engine-Atlas-blueprint" />
WordPress has always been a traditional monolithic CMS. While it still maintains its crown as the most popular CMS in the world, it's been playing catch up in the move to headless.
But that's starting to change as <a href="https://wpengine.com/" target="_blank">WP Engine</a>, the world’s most trusted WordPress technology company, as they announced the launch of Atlas – its award-winning headless WordPress solution. It's now available to businesses of all sizes with four new headless WordPress plans, ranging from $49 to $499, allowing developers to learn, build and grow their sites on Atlas. 
WP Engine also announced the launch of Atlas Blueprints, which are free, professionally-designed templates allowing anyone to get started fast with headless WordPress. Developers can also try out Atlas by signing up for a free Atlas Sandbox account, which allows developers to learn more about developing with headless WordPress and create prototype projects.
<h2>Postman API platform surpasses 20 million users, driven by vision for API-First world</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/05/20-million-postman-users.jpg" alt="20-million-postman-users" />
<a href="https://www.postman.com/" target="_blank">Postman</a>, the world's leading API platform, <a href="https://blog.postman.com/celebrating-20-million-postman-users/">announced</a> that more than 20 million developers and builders have adopted its platform to build and use APIs, strengthening the company's reputation for simplifying the API lifecycle and streamlining collaboration. Postman's public API hub is the world's largest, with workspaces from Microsoft, Stripe, Meta, Notion, Intel, Oracle, and more.
In <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/postman-releases-2021-state-of-the-api-report-shows-global-trend-towards-api-first-digital-era/">Postman's 2021 State of the API Report</a>, 67% of survey respondents ranked themselves a five or higher in terms of embracing an API-first philosophy – a five-point increase from 2020. Furthermore, the "API-first leaders" who ranked themselves highest produced APIs more quickly, deployed more frequently, had fewer failures, and recovered more swiftly when failures occurred.
<h2>Hyland expands infrastructure to deploy new OnBase and Brainware customers on AWS</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/09/e0030_thumb_big_media.png" alt="Hyland OnBase" />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-releases-new-content-services-and-intelligent-automation-product-enhancements/">Hyland</a>, recognized as a leading content services provider with more than 1,700 cloud customers, has expanded its work with <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/">Amazon Web Services (AWS)</a> to support its customer base and their increased cloud deployment and migration needs. 
Working with AWS, Hyland will expand its <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/innovation/hyland-cloud" target="_blank">Hyland Cloud</a> infrastructure to deploy new <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/onbase" target="_blank">OnBase</a> and <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/platform/product-suite/brainware" target="_blank">Brainware</a> cloud customers and cloud migration environments in North America on the appropriate AWS Region – fully supported and managed by Hyland's technical experts.
The strengthened relationship with AWS delivers an expansive infrastructure footprint for the Hyland Cloud, allowing Hyland to meet customer requirements with agility and scale while providing a more flexible architecture that supports customers' evolving information technology (IT) and business challenges. Backed by innovative technologies, security-driven policies, and dedicated support from knowledgeable technology experts, customers deploying Hyland's software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings on AWS benefit from its continued focus on cloud innovation and support for next-generation cloud solutions.
"Our work with AWS gives customers and prospects greater confidence and agility when deploying their cloud content services solutions, which are optimized for their unique needs and requirements," said Will Milewski, Senior Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure and Operations at Hyland. "With organizations continuing to evolve their business strategies to support remote work, cloud-based solutions are becoming the default and our relationship with AWS will ensure we're exceeding our customers' requirements from their content services platform."
Gartner has recognized Hyland as a content services industry leader for 12 consecutive years, and the winner of our own <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/introducing-the-winners-of-the-2021-cms-critics-choice-awards/" target="_blank">Critic's Choice Awards</a> for ECM in 2021. 
<h2>Concrete CMS 9.1.0RC1 is now available</h2>
Solid as a rock.
That was the news from the <a href="https://www.concretecms.com/" target="_blank">Concrete CMS</a> team as the company announced the availability of its first release candidate for Concrete CMS 9.1.0 – featuring a multitude of improvements, new features, and bug fixes, including:
<ul>
<li>Enhanced compatibility with PHP 8 and PHP 8.1.</li>
<li>Improved appearance and functionality when editing block, area, layout, and container styles inline in the page.</li>
<li>Express improvements like the ability to mark attributes as unique, handle re-use across objects, and much more.</li>
<li>Much improved version comparison features that can compare the HTML of two-page versions and highlight the differences.</li>
<li>Improvements to Dashboard listing screens and the file details screen.</li>
</ul>
Additionally, there are many behavioral and performance improvements included. The boulder-sized list is far too large for this blog post. <a href="https://documentation.concretecms.org/developers/introduction/version-history/910-release-notes" target="_blank">Click here</a> to read more of the details.
Concrete CMS was also recognized as a 2022 Leader in Content Management Systems by <a href="https://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge</a>.

CMS Monthly Recap: WP Engine Launches Headless Plans, Postman API Platform Surpasses 20 Million Users, and More

paris-tuzun

Featured image of April monthly recap of an umbrella with raindrops

Forks up! We've got one more slice of news as we leave November in the rearview.
Along with the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., it was a month full of "stuffing" at the CMS and DXP table. We shared the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/postman-releases-2021-state-of-the-api-report-shows-global-trend-towards-api-first-digital-era/" target="_blank">Postman "State of the API" report</a>, which further cemented the global trend towards an API-first digital era. We also covered <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-by-kentico-aims-to-take-enterprise-headless-cms-to-a-new-level/" target="_blank">Kontent by Kentico's continued efforts to transform headless CMS</a> for the enterprise through committed innovation.
From a mergers and acquisitions perspective, November was a bit cooler than in previous months. But there was one piece of news to dish about: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/" target="_blank">commercetools devoured Frontastic</a>, adding composable frontend capabilities to its headless commerce offering. We'll be following the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">headless commerce</a> sector throughout 2022 as we expect to see more consolidation, investment, and expansion – particularly as Omicron reinforces the focus on digital transformation.
Finally, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/solodev-cms-for-kubernetes-now-available-with-contract-pricing-in-aws-marketplace-for-containers-anywhere/" target="_blank">Solodev launched its CMS for Kubernetes with contract pricing</a> options in the AWS Marketplace. Announced at <a href="https://reinvent.awsevents.com/" target="_blank">AWS re:Invent</a>, this heralds a new era of container offerings, allowing users to deploy in-cloud or on-premises in almost any environment. Solodev was the only CMS in the mix to offer the new capability.
Enough on the leftovers. Here are a few more tidbits to chew on:
 
<h2>MACH Alliance announces eight newly certified companies as Global Membership nears 50</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/mach-alliance-new-members.jpeg" alt="MACH Alliance new members logos" />
The <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3366290-1&amp;h=2364601792&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.machalliance.org%2F&amp;a=MACH+Alliance" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a>, a group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems, announced that it has certified eight new members in its ecosystem: 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.actindo.com/" target="_blank">Actindo AG</a>, a digital operations platform enabling efficient e-commerce</li>
<li><a href="https://www.appnovation.com/" target="_blank">Appnovation</a>, a global digital consultancy specializing in the design, development, and support of engaging experiences</li>
<li><a href="https://www.builder.io/" target="_blank">Builder.io</a>, a platform to visually create and optimize high-speed app and website experiences</li>
<li><a href="https://www.convictional.com/" target="_blank">Convictional</a>,  a supplier enablement platform for retailers and marketplaces</li>
<li><a href="https://www.fast.co/" target="_blank">Fast</a>, a one-click and headless checkout solution making it easier to buy and sell online.</li>
<li><a href="https://graphcms.com/" target="_blank">GraphCMS</a>, the GraphQL Content Federation System</li>
<li><a href="https://www.objectedge.com/" target="_blank">Object Edge</a>, a consultancy that builds digital experiences for enterprise B2B/B2C/D2C commerce and content</li>
<li><a href="https://www.storyblok.com/" target="_blank">Storyblok</a>, a fast-emerging headless content management system. You can check out <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/interview-headless-cms-storyblok-expands-partner-program-with-u-s-agency-campbell-ewald/" target="_blank">our interview with Barry D'Arcy</a>, VP of Partners at Storyblok.</li>
</ul>
The Alliance estimates that roughly 100,000 tech professionals around the globe are now involved with MACH. This is based on the headcounts of member companies and in-house tech teams of enterprises deploying MACH initiatives. 
The Alliance's growth comes as IT budgets are expected to rise faster in 2022 than they have in over a decade – and spending in support of flexible, composable business and IT initiatives will be prioritized as organizations struggle to be digitally agile and meet consumer demands.
"We've reached a moment of reckoning where digital leaders are realizing legacy technologies pose greater risk than reward, and the pandemic has made it more clear than ever that composable architecture is the way forward for the enterprise," said Sonja Keerl, MACH Alliance president. "Even big tech has started slowly moving in this direction, which is all the more reason why the Alliance upholds its high certification standards since MACH-washing has become increasingly common. The Alliance exists to help organizations weed through that noise and be their guide throughout their MACH journey."
MACH stands for Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. The move towards MACH has accelerated in the past few years, leading to the start of the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> in 2020. Founded by commercetools, Contentstack, EPAM Systems, Valtech, and 15 members at launch, the MACH Alliance is a non-profit cooperation focused on introducing a new, open, and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystem. 
Maintaining Exclusive Certification Standards
The MACH Alliance maintains the <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3366290-1&amp;h=2299048448&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fmachalliance.org%2Finsights%2Fmach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence&amp;a=highest+standards" target="_blank">highest standards</a> in order for companies to become certified. The high bar provides enterprises with essentially an insurance policy that guarantees future-proof technology. Choosing a certified MACH vendor helps ensure the following:
<ul>
<li>Connectability: other applications connect easily through API</li>
<li>Scalability: cloud-native SaaS ensures seamless rolling upgrades that don't require human intervention</li>
<li>Swapability:  companies can easily add and replace software and make changes on the fly without disrupting front end UX/UI</li>
<li>Adaptability: the functionality of the software can be used with multiple front ends</li>
<li>Flexibility and Transparency: prevents vendor lock-in, allowing companies to stay in charge of their own technology and be able to respond to any situation</li>
</ul>
Gaining Investor Attention
MACH Alliance vendor members have accumulated more than $2.5 billion in funding, and the valuation of the category just by its vendors is estimated at over $20 billion.
The Alliance has played a key part in fueling this interest, with the group referred to by Forrester analyst Joe Cicman as being "...the bouncers controlling the velvet rope at the entrance of the Coolest Tech in Town Club." In his July write-up, "<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3366290-1&amp;h=3090673364&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forrester.com%2Fblogs%2Fbuy-an-integrated-platform-not-a-box-of-rocks%2F&amp;a=Buy+An+Integrated+DXP+Platform%2C+Not+Just+A+Box+Of+Rocks" target="_blank">Buy An Integrated DXP Platform, Not Just A Box Of Rocks</a>," Cicman noted how the MACH Alliance enforces the definition of modern technology. He also reinforced the importance of composable set-ups, stating the only practical playbook today is one that is cloud-native.
Learn more at <a href="http://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">www.machalliance.org</a>.
<h2>GoDaddy data breach impacts over 1.2 million WordPress accounts</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/binary-g2d4825f8f_1280.jpg" alt="Hacker and binary numbers" />
Alas, there are WordPress woes in the land of GoDaddy...
In a statement released by <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1609711/000160971121000122/gddyblogpostnov222021.htm" target="_blank">the Securities and Exchange Commission</a>, GoDaddy's Chief Information Security Officer Demetrius Comes said they discovered unauthorized third-party access to their managed WordPress hosting environment.
<div>Comes also stated that upon identifying this incident, they immediately blocked the unauthorized third party from their system. They have determined that beginning on September 6, 2021, the culprit used the vulnerability to gain access to the following customer information:</div>
<ul>
<li>Up to 1.2 million active and inactive Managed WordPress email addresses and customer numbers: The exposure of email addresses presents a risk of increased phishing attacks.</li>
<li>The original WordPress Admin password set at the time of provisioning: If those credentials were still in use, GoDaddy reset those passwords.</li>
<li>sFTP and database usernames and passwords for active customers</li>
<li>SSL private key for a subset of active customers: GoDaddy is in the process of issuing and installing new certificates for those affected.</li>
</ul>
<div>The investigation is ongoing and GoDaddy is contacting all impacted customers directly with specific details. If you're concerned, contact GoDaddy via their <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/help">help center</a>.</div>
 
<h2>WordPress 5.9 Release Date Gets Delayed to January 25, 2022</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/wordpress-59.jpg" alt="WordPress 5.9" />
Keeping up with WordPress version releases is a bit like playing pool with a rope. While Gutenberg gets new enhancements almost every two weeks, bigger releases are much less reliable. 
Case in point: the latest version of WordPress – 5.9 Beta – <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/" target="_blank">was scheduled for release</a> on November 16th. Apparently, that news was a bit premature, and the organization <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/17/wordpress-5-9-beta-1-delayed/" target="_blank">shifted the release to January 25, 2022</a>, to accommodate 5.9's new features.
Perhaps this is understandable given that WordPress is the most widely used open-source CMS on the planet. Maintaining standards is key, and even the most minor changes can impact users. That said, WordPress has a documented philosophy around development: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2010/04/20/deadlines-are-not-arbritrary-theyre-a/" target="_blank">deadlines are not arbitrary</a>. Schedules can shift if results demand it, but there's a clear focus on making commitments and sticking to timelines. 
Such is life. We hope to see 5.9 on January 25th.
What is included in WordPress 5.9?
According to WordPress, 5.9 is expected to be a ground-breaking release. It will introduce the next generation of themes with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/" target="_blank">Twenty Twenty-Two</a> joining the party and over 30 theme blocks to build all parts of your site.
Here's a sneak peek video of 5.9:
<div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XvEG9XWD4JI" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
 
<h2>commercetools Acquires Frontastic, adds composable frontend capabilities to headless commerce</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/commercetools_frontastic_featured.jpg" alt="Composite image of the commercetools and frontastic logos on a blended background" />
commercetools, a leading headless e-Commerce platform, recently <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/" target="_blank">announced</a> the acquisition of Frontastic, a composable frontend platform.
The purchase comes just a few months after commercetools announced a $140 million <a href="https://commercetools.com/press-releases/commercetools-secures-140m-series-c-funding-round-to-accelerate-global-growth" target="_blank">Series C funding round</a>. The company hopes it will broaden the reach of its game-changing commerce technology for creating differentiated user experiences.
"We've been partnering with the Frontastic team since the very beginning and see a huge market opportunity for their Composable Frontend Platform around the world," said Dirk Hoerig, CEO and Co-Founder of commercetools. "With this powerful combination, we're bringing the MACH (Microservices, API, Cloud, and Headless) movement to the mid-market as well as to digital business teams so that more companies can benefit from modern commerce experiences."
It's worth noting that commercetools was one of the earlier headless commerce platforms on the scene, helping to shape the modern standards for headless commerce. Their decoupled environment now enables a multitude of commerce capabilities across an ever-growing network of channels and endpoints. Like other platforms in the composable field, commercetools also embraces the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH principles</a> – providing a truly open, modular environment that enables businesses to embrace innovation and respond to change quickly.

CMS Monthly Recap: MACH Alliance Announces New Members, GoDaddy Data Breach, commercetools Acquires Frontastic, and More

cms-critic-staff

Monthly Recap featured image with title text against a photo of a slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream

Ah, the API. It's not just another fancy TLA (three-lettered acronym) reserved for "MarTalk."
In fact, it's fair to say that the API – <a href="https://www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/what-is-an-api#:~:text=API%20is%20the%20acronym%20for,you're%20using%20an%20API." target="_blank">Application Programming Interface</a> for the unindoctrinated – is responsible for transforming the CMS and DXP industries. Without APIs, the integrations and connections that live at the heart of modern systems wouldn't exist.
Where would brands like AWS, Stripe, Twilio, and other market-leading technology platforms be without their mountains of <a href="https://nordicapis.com/crud-vs-rest-whats-the-difference/" target="_blank">APIs calling CRUD or REST</a> functions to trigger events?
The importance of APIs cannot be overstated, nor their profound effect on businesses and organizations. Case in point: the world's biggest SaaS (Software as a Service) companies have all become "<a href="https://swagger.io/resources/articles/adopting-an-api-first-approach/#:~:text=An%20API%2Dfirst%20approach%20means,be%20consumed%20by%20client%20applications." target="_blank">API-first</a>" in their architectural practices – where APIs are treated as "first-class citizens" and central their future growth and scalability.
It's worth noting that when we say API, we're referring to web APIs, which are designed to facilitate communication between computers that are connected by the internet. But the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API" target="_blank">acronym itself has much deeper roots</a>: the concept originated in the 1940s, but the terminology caught on in the 1960s and 70s as diverse software systems began to emerge and APIs were purpose-built for specific integrations. This included programming languages, software libraries, operating systems, and even hardware.
Fast forward a few decades, and APIs were suddenly everywhere. So abundant, it seemed, that the mantle of the "<a href="https://www.akana.com/blog/api-economy" target="_blank">The API Economy</a>" became a popular meme.
Around 2014, <a href="https://www.mulesoft.com/webinars/api/welcome-api-economy" target="_blank">Gartner predicted</a> that 75% of Fortune 500 enterprises would open an API, ushering in a sort of Golden Age of this newly-minted API Economy. Add a pandemic in 2020 – and a hyper-accelerated rush to digital transformation – and it's rare to find any large organization that isn't leveraging a multitude of APIs.
And why not? There are so many advantages to using APIs. Once again, according to <a href="http://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/welcome-to-the-api-economy/" target="_blank">Gartner</a>, APIs make it easier to integrate and connect people, places, systems, data, and algorithms – as well as create new user experiences, share data and information, authenticate people and things, enable transactions and algorithms, leverage third-party algorithms, and build new products, services and business models. 
For these reasons (and there are plenty more), <a href="https://www.postman.com/" target="_blank">Postman</a> – a leading application platform for API testing – embarked on a quest several years ago to gauge the sentiment of API users and builders. Their annual "State of API" report has become a defacto standard for observing and documenting the behavioral changes in this dynamic sector, and we've broken down some of the key findings in their 2021 edition.
<h2>The pandemic's impact and the reliance on APIs to respond with digital transformation</h2>
For this year's report, Postman surveyed more than 28,000 developers and API professionals who shared their thoughts on various topics, including their organizations' development priorities, how they get their work done, and where they see the industry going. They combined this data with data observed on their Postman API Platform to build a robust picture of the current state – and future – of APIs.
Right off the bat, this year's report focuses on the persistent impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the research, almost two-thirds of respondents stated that the pandemic somewhat or significantly affected their work – and almost half of those noted their organization's changes were supported by APIs. Many respondents said they had to quickly modernize their digital experiences and business systems to serve their customers, while others said they had to pivot their business entirely. 
Common areas of investment included e-commerce, customer support via chat and text, and contactless digital systems – all of which relied heavily on APIs. Thanks to the flexibility of many API solutions, organizations were able to successfully implement changes in weeks or months that would have otherwise taken years.
Here are some of the other key findings in the report: 
<ul>
<li>The API ecosystem is growing: The reliance on APIs to support business and product shifts during the pandemic was reflected through the Postman API Platform, with some significant gains across their key performance metrics. </li>
<li>Developers are spending more time with APIs: 49% of respondents said that more than half of their organizations' development effort is spent on APIs (compared to just over 40% last year), showing the prevalence of APIs in digital organizations' technology stacks.</li>
<li>API investments remain strong and steady as more companies embrace the API-first philosophy: An overwhelming 94% of respondents stated the investment of time and resources into APIs would increase or stay the same for the next 12 months.</li>
<li>The investments in an API-first philosophy are paying off: "API-first leaders" (i.e., respondents who rank themselves a 9 or 10 for embracing an API-first philosophy) produce APIs more quickly, deploy more frequently, have fewer failures, and recover more swiftly when failures occur. For example, 46% of API-first leaders indicated they could recover from API failure in less than an hour, compared to 34% of all respondents.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Tracking the global growth of APIs</h2>
Since the 2020 "State of the API" report was released, the Postman API Platform saw significant upsurges that indicate trends across the API ecosystem. Over the past 12 months, Postman users made 855 million API requests (up 56% from the prior year), created 30 million collections (up 39%), and signed in from 234 different countries and geographies—including Antarctica.
<img style="max-width:792px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/yea-over-year-requests-created.jpg" alt="year over year requests created" />
The global growth of APIs is driving an ever-evolving <a href="https://www.postman.com/state-of-api/tooling-for-apis-and-development/#tooling-for-apis-and-development" target="_blank">landscape of tooling for APIs and development</a> in the API Platforms category. Postman observed that many vendors in this market serve a broad range of needs across the API lifecycle, from design to testing to security. 
Additionally, they see vendors offering repositories for source code, API gateways, application performance monitoring, and CI/CD – all of which should integrate with API platforms to achieve optimal results from API initiatives within an organization.
Here is their view of the landscape today:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/postman-api-platform-landscape-e1636134691803.png" alt="postman api platform landscape" />
<h2>Which industries are using APIs the most?</h2>
It's no surprise that the tech sector is leading the way in API adoption and usage. But business, banking/finance, insurance, and healthcare sectors are following closely.
Further, API adoption is on the rise in nearly every industry. On the business side, there's been a growing trend in e-commerce businesses going headless, separating the frontend "head" from the backend "body." Tapping the omnichannel is at the core of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">headless commerce</a>, and content in a headless platform is delivered through APIs – allowing it to be displayed across different devices and endpoints. 
The banking/finance sector can be one of the slowest industries to adopt new technologies (core banking systems are notorious for outliving their sunset dates), but APIs have been shifting the topology, making it less cumbersome to embrace change. With more than <a href="https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/online-mobile-banking/" target="_blank">62% of Americans</a> using digital services over physical bank branches, APIs are making it easier for financial systems to securely meet the needs of consumers while optimizing and streamlining internal processes.
Traditional banks are also <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/amiyatoshpurnanandam/2021/07/21/will-banks-survive-fintechs-challenge/?sh=35ac9e4a3165" target="_blank">facing fierce competition from fintech</a>. While traditional banks offer many services, smaller financial technologies tend to specialize in specific services, disrupting the monolithic banking industry. Investment trends favor small fintech startups working on more accessible, customer-centric processes that are much less expensive than traditional banks – and are built on APIs. 
The emergence of blockchain and cryptocurrencies are also challenging the status quo. Both traditional and fintech companies should continue to embrace APIs as a bridge for connecting these emerging technology areas. 
<img style="max-width:840x" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/who-works-with-apis.jpg" alt="industries that work with APIs the most chart" />
<h2>What it means to be API-first in a new digital era</h2>
What's abundantly clear from Postman's research is that many teams and organizations are fully embracing the "API-first" philosophy. 
In fact, on a scale of 1 to 10 for embracing an API-first strategy, 66% of this year's respondents ranked themselves as a "5 or higher." This is up from 62% in 2020. 
On that same scale, 8% of respondents ranked themselves as a "9 or 10." Postman refers to these respondents as the market's "API-first leaders." 
Understanding the philosophy of being API-first requires some deeper insight into user behaviors. According to <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/insights/the-future-of-digital-experience-platforms-na">research conducted by Forrester Wave</a>, mobile will still be the key orchestrator for a user's journey – and one that's non-linear. 
To help us understand the user journey with greater intimacy, Forrester created a diagram for the 3D-connected consumer that features devices, platforms, and channels:
<img style="max-width:830px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/3d-connected-consumer.png" alt="The 3D connected consumer" />
Here's where the API-first approach comes into play – where brands can be channel-agnostic as consumers use a combination of devices, platforms, and channels. 
Development Priorities
Postman asked respondents to identify the top priorities for their development teams and organizations, and there was a clear winner: quality, coming in at 80%. 
Agility, reliability, security, and development speed were also important to more than half of the respondents. "API-first leaders" were even more likely to cite quality, reliability, agility, and security as priorities.
<img style="max-width:753px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/development-priorities.jpg" alt="development priorities chart" />
<h2>API technologies</h2>
As far as architectural styles for APIs are concerned, a sweeping majority of respondents (94%) use REST; of those, nearly half said that that they not only use REST, but that they "use it and love it." 
The majority of participants are conscious of webhooks, WebSockets, GraphQL, and SOAP, but none of these have seen the same level of adoption as REST among the participants.
<img style="max-width:717px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/architectural-style.jpg" alt="architectural style" />
Specifications
Postman also asked professionals which API specifications they know, use, and prefer – and JSON Schema was by far the top specification in use cited by three-quarters of respondents. Swagger 2.0 (54%) and OpenAPI 3.0 (40%) were the next most popular specifications.
Future Technologies
Postman asked the question, "What technologies are you most excited about using over the next year?" Microservices (58%) and Kubernetes (50%) led the answers, just as they did in 2020. 
Rounding out the top five are containers (46%), serverless architecture (44%), and GraphQL (35%).
<img style="max-width:756px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/11/future-technologies.jpg" alt="future API technologies chart" />
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
There's a lot to unpack in Postman's 2021 "State of the API" report, and it's worth your time to dive in head-first. Kudos to their content team for making the research easy to digest and incredibly applicable and relevant. 
The big takeaway is astoundingly clear: the pandemic continues to change everything, and the world is responding with APIs. To reiterate, two-thirds of respondents stated that the pandemic somewhat or significantly affected their work – and for many organizations, they played a key role in keeping the businesses operating. 
As a recap, here are a few highlights from the report where APIs were the undisputed "heroes" of the digital stack:
<ul>
<li>Organizations adopted new channels or enhanced existing channels to reach and serve customers in a pandemic world, leveraging APIs to make it all happen.</li>
<li>Respondents told Postman that common areas of investment included e-commerce, customer support via chat and text, and contactless digital systems – all of which relied on APIs.</li>
<li>Many respondents had to adjust to major shifts in market demand, with some businesses completely pivoting their product offerings. For many, product rollouts relied on APIs, and organizations achieved what would typically take years in a matter of weeks or months. Some businesses were even born in the pandemic to meet new needs.</li>
<li>Working from home presented new challenges for many organizations. APIs and integrations with internal systems helped solve these challenges by automating or enabling tasks that used to happen in person – such as communication, attendance, reporting, and project management.</li>
<li>Some of the most frequently cited innovations came from healthcare, with many organizations needing to digitize and automate workflows and run telemedicine strategies. In both cases, APIs were essential to powering these solutions. </li>
</ul>
No one has a crystal ball, but Postman's data and insights around APIs are proving incredibly useful when it comes to forecasting the future. Based on what we've seen in 2021, it's safe to say that APIs continue to deliver – come rain, or sleet, or snow... or pandemics. 
If you'd like to read Postman's full report, you can <a href="https://www.postman.com/state-of-api/" target="_blank">download it here</a>.

Postman Releases 2021 "State of the API" Report, Shows Global Trend Towards API-First Digital Era

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