An API-first vision that raises the bar – 2020-style  

Participating in the Gartner Magic Quadrant evaluation process is both an honor and a feat. In May, after a fantastic work-from-home team effort to complete our submission for the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management¹ we breathed a collective sigh of relief and hit “send.” We had laid out (in great detail) Axway’s API-first vision and how we’re executing on it. Then all we had to do was wait for the results.

A few weeks ago, we got our answer: Axway would be named a Magic Quadrant Leader for the fifth time. I was thrilled and extremely proud. But I wasn’t surprised. That’s because I believe so strongly in what we’re doing.

Every day, I see how we’re not only helping customers keep their businesses running in these crazy times, but we’re helping them automate (like B3), adapt (like BNP Paribas Personal Finance), innovate (like HM Health Solutions), and even set new records for growth (like PermataBank).

The Fosbury Flop

It got me thinking about a story I read about the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and an athlete named Dick Fosbury. He was a high jumper with “a bad back, bad feet, and an easily worn-out body.” He knew he couldn’t beat stronger competitors using the standard straddle method to clear the bar face-first. So he did something completely different. He jumped backwards. It earned him the temporary title of “World’s Laziest High Jumper” by some who didn’t appreciate his genius. But then he set a new world record at 2.24 meters and took home the gold. And just like that, the “Fosbury Flop” raised the bar for every generation of high jumpers to come.

And that’s how we all have to think in 2020. At the beginning of this year, a lot of businesses were comfortable with a conventional “straddle” approach to digital transformation — they saw it as a face-first, multi-year initiative. But then everything changed.

According to consumer sentiment data from McKinsey & Company, the need to go digital jumped ahead five years in just eight weeks, and now everyone has to learn how to do the Fosbury Flop. Nobody trained for that!

For some business and IT leaders we’ve been talking to, it’s a matter of simplifying and surviving — just keeping the lights on. For others, it’s about meeting new customer demands before a competitor beats them to it. Either way, it means changing the business.

We know APIs

We’ve always known that APIs are the key to digital transformation, whether you want to take small steps or big leaps. We’ve stayed focused on building an open API platform and a team of experienced guides that help our customers move at their own pace. It’s just that now that pace needs to be faster than it was before.

We believe being a five-time Leader² in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management affirms two things:

• Our past: We’ve set and predicted API trends, translated them into strategic goals, and successfully executed on that strategy for many years.
• Our future: Our Open Everything vision is the right path forward for our customers and partners, for the AMPLIFY™ API Management solution, and for Axway.

We’re also a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: API Management Solutions, Q3 2020³, and the winner of Best in Microservices Infrastructure at API World 2020 showing broad recognition of our approach.

Be open for the future, but ready for now

If this year has taught us anything, it’s that every business and every organization needs to be ready to jump forwards or sideways or even backward if that’s what it takes. We’re still discovering what the new reality is. But one thing is clear: you can’t be a straddler anymore. You need to be a Fosbury Flopper.  I hope you’ll trust us to help you raise the bar in 2020 and beyond.

¹Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management, Paolo Malinverno, Kimihiko Iijima, Mark O’Neill, John Santoro, Shameen Pillai, Akash Jain, 22 September 2020

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

²Axway (Vordel) as a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Application Services Governance 2013

Axway as a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Application Services Governance 2015

Axway as a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management 2016 2019

³The Forrester Wave™: API Management Solutions, Q3 2020, Forrester Research, Inc., August 4, 2020