API management platform Apigee is entering the next phase of its business life with the launch of a self-service platform that allows anybody to build and manage business value around the new API economy. And speaking of “economy,” Apigee’s new-generation platform is entirely free – to a point.

Apigee’s new platform, launched yesterday, is using the same technology that’s already handling 100 billion API calls monthly from the company’s existing customers, which the company claims comes from 20 percent of the Fortune 500. High-profile companies Walgreens, Netflix, Bechtel and Getty Images have all gone public about their usage of the platform. But the new platform updates, especially the freemium sales pitch, is designed to make it appealing to organizations of all shapes and sizes.

The new platform has four core pillars: A portal to securely create and manage APIs created from data assets; a services platform to enable storage, geo-location, user databases and so on for the API; the ability to create developer-facing portals to help build an ecosystem around the API; an analytics engine to monitor and derive insights from API growth and usage.

“We’ve now taken this technology and simplified it so that any organization – from a developer in a garage to a Fortune 50 company – can launch like a startup and scale like an enterprise,” said Apigee CEO Chet Kapoor in a statement.

It’s actually interesting that Kapoor chose to phrase it that way – as we’ve seen with Mashery’s recent round of funding, there’s a strong need for API management, as the “symphony” of API-powered services increasingly power what we as users are starting to consider the new normal in IT. We’ve come to expect a certain level of interoperability between our apps, between our devices, and between our services. Companies like Apigee are trying to facilitiate that transformation.

After that free 3.5 million API calls, Apigee Enterprise pricing starts at $9,000/month.