comcast codebig: an api platform & program
DESCRIPTION
Driving innovation throughout a large technology-driven veteran company in a competitive industry is no easy task. Comcast has many engineering groups with a lot of APIs, providers and developers – more than 1500, in fact. This creates a bit of a scattering effect with regard to our technology. Despite this, we’ve been focused on enhancing and/or replacing legacy systems and designs (SOAP, one-off Web interfaces/systems) and shifting our services model to one that is more mobile/device centric. Major hurdles have included slow integration/syndication across consumer and service provider services, and the lack of a consistent security model allowing controlled data sharing and system integration. Comcast’s effort to overcome these challenges and build a developer & provider community and network from its current infrastructure state – replete with duplicate APIs and effort in some cases – is called CodeBig. Through this unified combination of best-in-class technology and best practices, CodeBig aims to overcome our challenges of API scattering/duplication, integration/security models and legacy Web interfaces, and ultimately foster innovations and growth/deployment quickly and efficiently.TRANSCRIPT
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An API Platform & Program
Author/Presenter: Hai Thai | Comcast | Date: December 3rd 2013
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Agenda
About Comcast Challenges within our enterprise CodeBig objectives solve those challenges CodeBig platform architecture and program Results CodeBig in practice
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About Comcast
Fortune’s 2013 top 100 companies NBCUniversal is now part of Comcast Recently turned 50 years old, over 125,000 employees
spread throughout the world More than just a cable company, also a media,
software/technology company Promotes and drives innovation to create the world's best
entertainment and online experiences
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Challenges Comcast as a large technology-driven veteran company,
driving innovation in a competitive industry certainly has many challenges
Many engineering groups with a lot of APIs, providers and developers (1500+) – scattering effect
Enhancing and/or replacing legacy systems/designs (SOAP, one-off Web interfaces/systems) – shifting to mobile/device centric
Slow integration/syndication (using VPN, custom authentication - lengthy process, resource intensive) on both consumer side and service/API provider side
Establishing a consistent security model for data sharing and system integration in a controlled manner
Building a developer & provider community/network – duplicate APIs and effort in some cases
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Objectives CodeBig (5 years old) is built as an API platform &
program to overcome important challenges: API scattering/duplication, lack of API management, inefficient integration process & inconsistent security models – ultimately to foster innovations and growth/deployment quickly and efficiently
API management as infrastructure (platform) layer Separation between API core and security Capacity management (caching, rate limiting, traffic
control) Std. security, scale & flexibility (access and control
options) Easy and quick integration for data sharing and
integration API program
Useful, easy-to-use developer tools Developer & consumer community/network (portal) Evangelization of RESTful style (pragmatic &
hypermedia) – mobile/device centric
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Architecture
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Results API management platform with catalog of 80+ APIs
(~1.6b requests/month and growing for both APIs and traffic)
Significantly faster integration/syndication between internal/external developers and providers – from a month or so to a few days, 30 minutes in some cases
Standard secured data access and API management as a service – OAuth 1.0a/2.0 standard
Analytics, stateless, rate limiting (protection/capacity mgt.), caching layers (Akamai edge & Mashery), traffic control
CodeBig portal and tools/scripts for both developers and providers to use, share, learn, analyze and monitor APIs
Evolution of pragmatic & hypermedia REST APIs managed and protected by CodeBig
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In Practice XCMA (Xfinity Connect Mobile App) & Xfinity Portal
call logs, voicemail, Voice 2go & text messaging Xfinity TV Remote
Browse, tune and record show from the mobile and portal app
Xfinity TV Go Watch live TV channels (35 channels, more to come)
Twitter & Comcast interconnection with “See It” Tune, watch or record the show from a tweet
Apps on X1 set-top boxes Caller ID, voicemail, weather, news, etc.
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Xfinity TV Remote
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Last Few Points “Use the Web as it was designed” i.e. RESTful style;
pragmatic or hypermedia whenever makes sense New product (e.g. CodeBig as an API platform/program)
incurs other challenges: education, awareness & usage Establish simple & fast on-boarding, change, etc.
processes Simplify API design (easy to consume and
troubleshoot) Developers & providers are customers
…and don’t’ forget, HAVE FUN!
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Contact
Connected to Hai Thai (author/presenter).Escape character is '^]'.GET /comcast/engineering/neto/ssd/hai_thai HTTP/1.1User-Agent: Comcast NBCUniversalHost: corporate.comcast.comX-Email: [email protected]: hai_thaiAccept: */*
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