What is IBM Watson?

Watson is an IBM supercomputer that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and sophisticated analytical software for optimal performance as a “question answering” machine. The supercomputer is named for IBM’s founder, Thomas J. Watson.


The Watson supercomputer processes at a rate of 80 teraflops (trillion floating-point operations per second). To replicate (or surpass) a high-functioning human’s ability to answer questions, Watson accesses 90 servers with a combined data store of over 200 million pages of information, which it processes against six million logic rules. The device and its data are self-contained in a space that could accommodate 10 refrigerators.

Watson's key components include:

• Apache UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) frameworks, infrastructure and other elements required for the analysis of unstructured data.

• Apache's Hadoop, a free, Java-based programming framework that supports the processing of    large data sets in a distributed computing environment.

       - SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 11, the fastest available Power7 processor operating system.

• 2,880 processor cores.

       -  15 terabytes of RAM.

• 500 gigabytes of preprocessed information.

IBM'sDeepQA software, which is designed for information retrieval that incorporates natural language processing and machine learning.

API performance...

Web API

What is Web API? API stands for Application Programming Interface. A Web API is an application programming interface for the Web. A Browser API can extend the functionality of a web browser. A Server API can extend the functionality of a web server.

Web API can be hosted only on an Internet Information Service (IIS) or self that supports XML and JSON requests. In contrast, REST API can be hosted only on IIS that supports standardized XML requests.

There are four principal types of API commonly used in web-based applications: public, partner, private and composite.

Web API is a programming interface/application type that provides communication or interaction between software applications. Web API is often used to provide an interface for web sites and client applications to have data access. Web APIs can be used to access data from a database and save data back to the databas

Internal-Partner-Open API

Business Value of OPEN API

 Every API is published with specific business aims in mind and API program managers must ensure these aims drive the interface design process.

1. Increasing Revenue Often an API can be a direct source of revenue. This may involve charging developers for access to the API, facilitating the in-house creation of pay-to-play applications or enabling ecommerce. A key consideration here is that the API must offer something worth paying for.

2. Extending Customer Reach & Value APIs provide the ideal solution for enterprises that wish to reach new customers or increase the value of current customers by offering existing services via new platforms and devices. In these instances, it is vital to consider technical requirements for these new delivery channels.

3. Supporting Sales & Marketing Activities APIs can also help a company to market its products and services, without necessarily becoming involved in how these offerings are delivered. Such an API should enable the creation of the kind of engaging, immersive functionality associated with online marketing best practices.

4. Stimulating Business & Technical Innovation APIs can help an organization develop new systems, offerings and strategies from the inside because they reduce technical barriers to innovation. Specifically, APIs empower organizations to generate and implement ideas without requiring them to change their backend systems.

5. Easing Integration of Backend Data & Applications APIs also play a key integration role in a variety of internal IT projects that impact core business goals. In these projects, it is vital to consider the business event or need driving the integration. For example, the integration may result from a merger or from a new regulatory requirement.

How to make OPEN API to successful?

An open API may be used by internal developers but it is fair to say – in most cases – the success of an open API program will depend on its ability to attract external developers and help them create truly valuable new apps that people actually want to use.

Open API publishers need to engage developers and they need to make sure these developers are successful.

Therefore, for business managers and interface designers alike, the key goal should be to increase both the quantity and quality of API usage. This will mean

  - Targeting a specific dev audience,

  - Delivering an interface and

  - Accompanying documentation designed to meet that audience’s preferences and

  - Conducting targeted outreach/education activities. 

 

Private VS Public(OPEN) API

An open APIs is an interface that has been designed to be easily accessible by the wider population of Web and mobile developers .

This means an open API may be used both
   - by developers inside the organization that published the API  OR 
   - by any developers outside that organization who wish to register for access to the interface.

An open API publisher is usually seeking to leverage the ever-growing community of free-agent app developers.

This will allow the organization to stimulate development of innovative apps that add value to its core business, without investing directly in development efforts – it simultaneously
  - Increases the production of new ideas and
  - Decreases dev costs.

Open API

These days, APIs are especially important because they dictate

-        How developers can create new apps which can tap into
          
          - > Big Web services,
        
         -  > Social networks like  Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter
       
         -  > Utilities like Google Maps or Dropbox


Open APIs are published on the Internet and shared freely.

A startup software company, for example might publish a series of APIs to encourage third-party developers in vertical industries to be innovative and figure out new ways to use the startup’s software product.

In theory, it’s a win-win business arrangement.

The startup gets to expand their company’s user base without having to spend any money to develop niche industry software -- and they still get to keep their source code proprietary.

In one sense, then, APIs are great time savers.  They also offer user convenience in many cases;

Example 1:

Facebook incorporated an open API into its business model.

Facebook users undoubtedly appreciate the ability to sign into many apps and Web sites using their Facebook ID—a feature that relies upon Facebook APIs to work.

Example 2:

When you search for nearby restaurants in the Yelp app for Android, for instance,
it will plot their locations on Google Maps instead of creating its own maps.

Its happening through Via the Google Maps API, the Yelp app passes the information it wants plotted—restaurant addresses, say, along with the Yelp star rating and more—
to an internal Google Maps function that then returns a Map object with restaurant pins in it at the proper locations.

Which Yelp can then display inside its app. (On iOS, Yelp taps Apple's Maps API for the same purpose.)

Example 3:

In lot of web pages, you can see  icons to share this article on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn or Reddit. These are just links that call on the APIs associated with each of those services to allow users to Tweet or post about an article without leaving the site itself

When API goes bad?

 

 

 1. Companies can shut down services and APIs that your applications depend on—or they can go out of business entirely,

 

These kinds of service shutdowns can leave you in a lurch if your application depends on those APIs to function.

 

 2. Open APIs can be problematic for developers,
    however, because the company publishing the API has all the power.
    If the startup ever decides to change the terms of use for its API, for example, or decides to charge a fee for licensing the API, the third-party developer has no choice but to accept it and deal with it.