Telefónica recently deployed CA Technologies’ API Management to support more than 200,000 internal and external services on the telcos’ infrastructure. The API Management tools will be used for the needs of integration and securing business systems.

While the deployment is not part of the operator's Unica network virtualization program, Business Information and Transformation Director of Telefónica España Carolina Bouvard said the company is working with common architectural principles to allow for any kind of integration with Unica.

Even though it isn't officially a part of the program, Telefónica requires “the creation of a powerful network-wide API from which to drive the automated management of the entire Unica environment and to abstract network management from the underlying technologies used to implement Unica,” according to a report about the program.

CA Technologies’ API management tools enable enterprises — and telcos specifically — to bring app development in house and launch technical support applications for customers.

The tool has three main components: the live API Creator, which generates scalable APIs from diverse data sources; the API Gateway, which exposes, secures, and manages backend applications, network systems, or infrastructure; and a Developer Portal, which provides developers access to enterprise data, including API documentation.

According to Richard Pulliam, vice president, strategy, developer products, CA Technologies, the API Gateway is “vital” to Telefónica and something the company is excited about using. “Our Gateway can provide more security, more policy, more API governance attributes at scale,” said Pulliam. “It’s a high performance run-time machine and is a really good fit for the telco industry on average.”

Additionally, the telecommunications provider uses the API Developer Portal to change the technology supporting its back-end services without impacting the end-user and the CA Application Performance Management.

Telefónica deployed the diagnostic solution for its customer service organization to resolve technical incidents. CA coordinated the integration of more than 50 different operational systems.

"In the case of API management, CA provides us with the technology to access services in a controlled, regulated, agile, and secure way, through both internal applications and with third parties," wrote Bouvard in an email. "With this, the API portal becomes the unique center for the deployment of APIs in any environment and any area, maximizing automation and unassisted operations. In addition, it supports the evolution towards the microservice paradigm."

The telco has a complex infrastructure, with multiple applications, many languages, different systems, and according to Pulliam, they required APIs to manage these backend conversations, no matter the application. CA’s technology and tools met these needs by being flexible and scalable enough to manage and expose the APIs and secure them internally.

“Telefónica is extremely advanced and mature in terms of the way they’re looking at APIs,” said Pulliam. “They needed something that was more broadly capable both for the new applications and APIs as well as the back-end integration and tie-ins to their existing services.”