On September 8, Google announced its intent to acquire Apigee, a company that specializes in application programming interface (API) management. APIs are used to connect data from different applications, systems and databases to one another, thereby enhancing the ability of applications to share data and collaborate. Walgreens, for example, uses Apigee to empower developers to build apps using Walgreen APIs marked by the ability to use mobile apps to order photographs at the store of their choosing or submit prescription refills. Google’s acquisition of Apigee expands its ability to integrate APIs into the Google Cloud Platform, thereby enabling the Google Cloud Platform to integrate with a greater variety of applications and infrastructures. For starters, Google’s acquisition of Apigee positions the Google Cloud Platform to seamlessly integrate with Apigee’s impressive roster of customers including AT&T, Burberry and First Data, in addition to Walgreens. The acquisition of Apigee underscores Google’s commitment to building a developer-friendly cloud computing platform that empowers developers to create APIs either for new apps or to enrich existing the capability of existing apps. By giving developers freedom with respect to their choice of a development framework, in addition to an API marked by a battle-tested degree of security and stability, Apigee stands to augment the ease with which Google Cloud Platform and its constituent portfolio of products can integrate with the broader app development and infrastructure ecosystem. In a blog post, Diane Greene, the head of Google’s Cloud Business, noted that Google Cloud Platform plans to deepen its integration with Kubernetes in a further indication that Google plans to augment its efforts to court developers by enriching their experience with, and range of options associated with the Google Cloud Platform. Google will acquire Apigee for $625M or $17.40/share.
Cloud Computing Today 