“There’s an API for that” might become the slogan of digital business over the next few years. Companies are making their application program interfaces available to others to improve existing apps or form new ones. They can even create new revenue streams for companies.

AccuWeather Inc. realized it had an untapped asset in its vast, constant stream of weather data. It tapped Apigee — the API management platform from Google Cloud Platform — to create an API portal for developers.

“Everything is APIs, and we also say, everything is impacted by the weather — so why not have everyone use AccuWeather APIs to fulfill their weather needs?” said Mark Iannelli (pictured, left), senior technical account manager at AccuWeather.

The portal allows businesses, individual developers, students, or pretty much anyone to easily access AccuWeather’s API. It provides an easy self-service way to integrate the API for all kinds of apps or other use cases.

Iannelli and Ed Anuff (pictured, right), director of product management for Google Cloud Platform at Google, spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco. They discussed the evolving API economy (see the full interview with transcript here). 

Easy APIs, easy money

Google Cloud’s latest announcements aim to make advanced tech like hybrid-cloud API management easier for enterprises to consume, according to Anuff.

“Google Cloud is very much about taking these resources that Google has built that were available to a select few, and unlocking those in a self service fashion,” he said.

The easy exchange of APIs between users is opening up opportunities for innovation and app development. “I view this a continuation of the API promise,” Annuff stated.

AccuWeather’s API has opened up a whole new sales channel for the company. It makes revenue through users such as Cohero Health Inc., makers of connected inhalers. The company calls the AccuWeather API for current conditions when a user has a respiratory attack. It has built a database that it analyzes with machine learning to predict when a user may suffer an attack, according to Iannelli.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Google Cloud Next event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE