Unlocking Digital Performance: The Critical Role of API Monitoring With ThousandEyes

In today's hyper-connected digital landscape, applications are no longer monolithic entities but modular systems woven from countless interconnected services and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These APIs serve as the backbone of modern software, enabling efficient communication between different systems, both internal and external. From mobile apps fetching data to cloud services integrating with third-party platforms, APIs facilitate the flow of information that powers our digital experiences.

However, this reliance on APIs introduces a new layer of complexity and potential vulnerability. When an API fails or experiences performance degradation, the impact can ripple across an entire application ecosystem, directly affecting user experience, business operations, and ultimately, revenue. This is where robust API monitoring becomes not just beneficial, but absolutely critical.

With Cisco ThousandEyes, organizations can proactively monitor APIs and gain the insights needed to provide confidence in the smooth operation of their services, identify issues before they impact users, and maintain the integrity of their digital supply chain.

API Complexity Limits Monitoring Success

API monitoring is essential, yet it remains challenging—especially for internal APIs. One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of built-in support for enterprise features like proxies, client/server certificates, and modern authentication methods such as OAuth 2.0. Without built-in OAuth 2.0 client credentials support, teams are often forced to rely on fragile workarounds, undermining both test reliability and scalability.

Why choose ThousandEyes for comprehensive API monitoring?

The ThousandEyes platform provides an end-to-end view across your entire digital supply chain, empowering you to proactively identify and resolve issues before they affect users or operations. It includes the following critical features that help you get the most out of API monitoring:

• Intuitive API test creation: Get set up quickly and understand baseline API tests. Beyond simple up/down checks, ThousandEyes makes it easy to augment tests as needs evolve. Easily add assertions to validate data integrity, extend monitoring to multi-step API scenarios, and create variations to thoroughly test edge cases, enabling robust performance across all conditions.

• Integrated API metrics: Alerts and dashboards are tailored to best represent API-specific metrics and insights.

• Authentication support: Rely on built-in support for common authentication methods like OAuth 2.0 client credentials, along with comprehensive support for client/server certificates and proxies. This reduces complex workarounds and simplifies the setup process, even for teams less familiar with API authentication.

• Support for internal API testing: Get the enterprise-grade solutions you need to monitor internal and backend APIs securely. With built-in support for proxies and client/server certificates, you’ll have full visibility into even your most sensitive endpoints.

How API Monitoring Cuts MTTR and Boosts Collaboration

Effective API monitoring empowers stakeholders across your organization and fosters better collaboration. Here’s how different stakeholders benefit:

• IT operations managers: A clear understanding of the state of key internal application APIs allows IT operations managers to accurately scope issues and pinpoint probable root causes. This enables efficient direction of problems to the right team, whether that’s the network, vendor, authentication, or internal application owners.

• Network engineers: Identifying packet loss or latency along the network path is crucial. With API monitoring, network engineers can quickly diagnose if an outage in a critical API stems from underlying network issues, and facilitate rapid resolution.¹

• Application owners: Easily understanding the performance of key APIs is vital for application owners to track the health of their production services and enable optimal user experience.

• IT operations, monitoring, and system reliability engineering (SRE) teams: API monitoring makes it easy to quickly set up API tests across the application ecosystem. Endpoints can be easily added to dashboards, giving teams a shared view of system health and performance.

Take Control of Your APIs With ThousandEyes

APIs are the silent workhorses of the Internet, powering everything from enterprise applications to consumer-facing services. As organizations become more dependent on these services, monitoring their performance, availability, and security is essential. However, gaining full visibility into APIs—especially internal and third-party ones—remains a challenge.

ThousandEyes addresses this by making API monitoring easier to set up and more scalable. With built-in support for enterprise-grade features such as OAuth 2.0, proxies, and certificates, along with deep network intelligence and flexible test creation, you gain the insights needed to troubleshoot faster, reduce MTTR, and keep your digital ecosystem running smoothly.² 

Ready to take control of your APIs? Start your free trial of ThousandEyes today!

^{1. "Kamstrup builds resilient networks for global growth," Cisco Customer Story.} 

^{2. Ibid.}