Apigee recently announced that AccuWeather had selected its Apigee Edge API management software. This will allow AccuWeather to expose its weather forecasting and tracking functionality to third-party software developers and opens up a wealth of possibilities when it comes to creating solutions that leverage real-time weather data.
According to the company’s website, Apigee Edge API is supposed to address many concerns that customers would have about an API management tool. The platform can handle large volumes and spikes in traffic, and protects against OWASP top 10 threats, which include cross-site scripting, security misconfiguration, and insecure direct object references.
The implications of the Apigee-AccuWeather relationship are profound for third-party developers who want to add weather data functionality to their applications. The sky is the limit when it comes to the possibilities where this information would be useful.
Navigation software, whether used for maritime, aviation, or automobile navigation, would be able to tie the collection of real-time weather data into routing. A cross-country truck driver, for example, could receive alternate routes to avoid the Denver area as a snowstorm approached. Ships could receive similar alternate routing to avoid waters where the waves were high, and air traffic control would have accurate, up-to-the-minute weather data to route flights better.
Inventory systems could order more plywood for the local home improvement store in anticipation of a hurricane strike; event planners could use the information to prepare for and even take advantage of inclement weather; and companies that ramp up or down their advertising based on the weather could automate the process.
There are few institutions on the planet that have the expertise in weather tracking that AccuWeather does. It would be the height of folly to attempt to develop such functionality from scratch, unless you are a company the size of Google (and even then buying out AccuWeather would make more sense). This is one of the best cases software development theorists can make for not reinventing the wheel.
The more newsworthy item however, is not that AccuWeather has APIs that developers badly want, but that it chose Apigee’s API management platform to facilitate their use. If applications are going to rely on a mechanism for providing real-time weather data, that mechanism must be of the highest reliability. AccuWeather would not have selected Apigee if this wasn’t the case. Such a selection in itself is a strong endorsement of Apigee’s capability.
Edited by
Alicia Young
