Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


UCLA Pilots API Portal

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 07/22/21
UCLA API portal

The University of California, Los Angeles has gone public with piloting of a fairly new developer portal specifically for APIs. The API developer portal is intended to simplify the sharing and discovery of campus application programming interfaces and web services — some 200 — while also providing a campuswide API governance program.

The use of the program maintains a consistent API experience and single "source of truth" for developers as they leverage various data sources for their applications. The outcome is that the university can create new solutions "more efficiently," explained Curtis Fornadley, program manager for enterprise integration at UCLA.

At the heart of the project is the use of Google's Apigee for API management.

According to a Google blog post, UCLA previously used "an enterprise service bus with a homegrown gateway for SOAP services." But SOAP-based services "are difficult to scale," said Fornadley. Managing them frequently means "locking them down, which clashes with our need to make data and functionality easier for developers to use."

Two development initiatives have put the API portal to the test. The first, the Ascend financial system, extends the university's financial system APIs, making them accessible to developers from various departments via secure and scalable self-service capabilities. The second, the student information system, uses APIs that give real-time access to the students' academic, financial and personal records to various UCLA applications.

Fornadley said the number of APIs — as well as the number of applications using and depending on them — increased considerably from these two projects alone, requiring better management for keeping services online, monitoring their usage and authenticating access to them.

Apigee usage has expanded from a million calls in 2020 to more than 11 million in 2021. Shortly, the transition of APIs from the home-grown gateway to the new portal will be completed, and call usage is expected to hit 49 million calls by the end of the year.

A benefit of the new portal, said Fornadley, is that usage provides the university with information that uncovers which services are being leveraged and how, which will be helpful in guiding future investments; in addition, IT considers it another route for making sure the versions of APIs used in institutional applications are protected against cybersecurity threats.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Silhouettes of business professionals stand against a blurred futuristic city skyline at night, with a glowing digital network data connection

    It's Time for Higher Ed to Get Serious About AI Strategy

    Without a coordinated strategy that involves multiple academic and administrative units across the entire campus, colleges risk wasting resources, duplicating efforts, and ultimately failing to deliver on the promise of deploying technology to improve learning and operations.

  • Hand holding a glowing AI sphere

    Beyond the Hype: 5 Actionable Steps for Higher Ed to Master AI in 2026

    AI has arrived as a powerful, pervasive reality, bringing with it a whirlwind of innovation, new tools, and pressing questions. Here are five practical steps to help your institution navigate this rapidly evolving landscape and accelerate its path to real transformation.

  • Digital cyberspace with particles and Digital data

    Report: AI Is Moving Faster than Data Trust

    AI agents are already in use or pilot at most organizations, but data visibility, governance and precision recovery capabilities have not kept pace, according to Veeam's new Data & AI Trust Gap report.

  • cyber security padlock

    AI Adoption Forces Trade-Off Between Speed and Identity Security, Study Finds

    AI adoption is forcing enterprises to trade security for speed — and identity controls are the first casualty, according to a new report from Delinea, a provider of identity security solutions for both human and AI agent identities.