Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers SE Radio 663: Tyler Flint on Managing External APIs
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Apr 8, 2025 Tyler Flint, CEO of qpoint.io and an expert in managing vendor dependencies, shares valuable insights on handling external APIs. He discusses the differences between internal and external services, the challenges of tracking usage, and security concerns like authentication. Metrics for monitoring, acceptable error rates, and tips for managing outages are covered, along with the transition of qPoint from a proxy-based solution to eBPF. Tyler emphasizes the importance of understanding hidden dependencies and maintaining robust API relationships for operational resilience.
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External Dependencies in Modern Applications
- Modern applications often have numerous external dependencies, ranging from internal microservices to third-party APIs.
- These dependencies can create a complex web of interconnected services that need careful management.
Types of External Dependencies
- In microservice architectures, every external service is a dependency, including those managed by other internal teams.
- External vendor dependencies include billing APIs, CRM systems, automation tools, LLM providers, and more.
Internal vs. External Dependencies
- Internal and external service dependencies differ in accountability and communication.
- With external vendors, teams must prioritize building resilience due to limited control over vendor uptime.