This is my presentation from the Business of APIs Conference in SF, held by Mashery (http://www.apiconference.com). This talk talks briefly about the history of the Netflix API, then goes into three main categories of scaling:
- 1. Using the cloud to scale in size and internationally
- 2. Using Webkit to scale application development in parallel to the flexibility afforded by the API
- 3. Redesigning the API to improve performance and to downscale the infrastructure as the system scales
When viewing these slides, please note that they are almost entirely image-based, so I have added notes for each slide to detail the talking points.
This presentation was original given at OSCON in July, 2011. It was my first OSCON presenting on behalf of Netflix.
The Netflix API was originally launched 3 years ago to expose Netflix metadata and services to developers and build applications. It now handles over 1 billion requests per day from over 20,000 developers and 13,000 applications. However, Netflix has undergone many business changes and the API needs to be redesigned to focus on its core streaming business and support international growth. The new design will build a scalable data distribution pipeline to deliver customized, optimized metadata and services to each streaming client and platform. It will use wrappers and response handlers to customize the response for each device and isolate problems. This will allow faster development and reduce the need for versioning across many client types and interfaces.
I was invited to Bristol, CT in May, 2011 to give this presentation to ESPN’s Digital Media team, focusing on the trajectory of the Netflix API. I also discussed Netflix’s device implementation strategy and how it enables rapid development and robust A/B testing.
This presentation was given at OSCON in July of 2010.
When launching the API at OSCON in 2008, NPR targeted four audiences: the open source community; NPR member stations; NPR partners and vendors; and finally our internal developers and product managers. In its short two-year life, the NPR API has grown tremendously, from only a few hundred thousand requests per month to more than 60M. The API, furthermore, has enabled tremendous growth for NPR in the mobile space while facilitating more than 100% growth in total page views in the last year.
This presentation was first published on June 25, 2010.
The NPR API has been the great enabler to achieve rapid development in the mobile space. That is, because we have our rich and powerful API, our mobile team is free to pursue the development of their mobile products without being encumbered by limited internal development resources. The touch-point between the mobile product and our content is fixed which means the mobile team can focus on design and usability for the specific platform.
Comments Off on Presentation : Netflix API – BAPI 2011 – SF 
Themocracy