Oracle acquired API management startup Apiary today for an undisclosed amount.
Apiary, which launched in 2011 and has raised a modest $8.5 million, helps companies manage APIs, which is an increasingly important job. As every company becomes a software company, they are building platforms and providing ways for customers and third-parties to build applications using their technologies.
Cloud companies increasingly want to help customers deal with those APIs. Just last fall, Google bought a similar company when it acquired Apigee for $625 million. At the time, Google’s Diane Greene talked about the value of helping customers with their digital interactions.
Oracle’s senior VP for cloud integration, Amit Zavery, sees a similar value proposition for Oracle customers. “With Apiary, Oracle will also provide customers advanced capabilities to design and govern APIs, allowing companies to manage the entire API lifecycle and deliver integrated applications,” Zavery said in a statement.
Oracle has been playing catch up when it comes to the cloud. After years of dismissing it, the database giant wants to be a player and take on the market leaders, like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Just this week it held a cloud event in NYC and announced among other things it was opening three new data centers in Reston, VA, London and Turkey to help fuel its new cloud strategy.
Oracle has a long history of acquiring and assimilating companies, but it’s unclear how this move will affect existing Apiary customers as it becomes part of the Oracle cloud team. Apiary executives were obviously positive about it. “Oracle customers will have unique access to a comprehensive API management platform providing control and increased agility, enabling them to focus on innovation,” Apiary founder and CEO, Jakub Nešetřil , said in a statement, — but how that will play out remains to be seen.
It’s worth pointing out that Oracle did make a statement that as part of the acquisition process, it will review the product roadmap “and will be providing guidance to customers in accordance with Oracle’s standard product communication policies.” You can take from that what you will.
