Blog post
The modern world is API-centric. The average internet user might not realize it, but nearly every online interaction depends on APIs. From logging in with Google credentials to booking a ride or making a payment, APIs are the hidden layer enabling digital services.
This reliance has reached critical mass. In 2025, 88% of enterprises use APIs, and 85% are either already using or implementing APIs in their systems. The move toward API-first development has accelerated sharply—74% of teams adopted API-first in 2024, up from 66% the year before. APIs have shifted from “technical necessities” to strategic business enablers, with 92% of CTOs stating that API strategy is critical to business success.
What exactly is an API?
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of rules or standards that extends the functionality of an application. It allows different applications/programs to interact with each other.
In the past, APIs were largely associated with building desktop applications, but they are now used for building web-based applications as well. In this case, the interaction between different web applications is done through data exchange with request and response over HTTP/HTTPS (REST APIs).
How do web applications use APIs in practice?
Most web applications use APIs to extend user functionality and to integrate with other third-party services. Some of the advantages of having APIs include:
- Making online payments via a payment gateway
- Filtering and searching for products in e-commerce
- Booking a taxi based on your location
- Embedding social media platforms on your website to extend your influence
Each call adds convenience, but also introduces a dependency. If an API is slow or fails, it disrupts the user’s experience.
Why is it essential to monitor APIs?
When APIs fail, performance and functionality break—sometimes subtly, sometimes catastrophically. Proactive monitoring ensures APIs are not only reachable but also functional, fast, and reliable.
With Internet Performance Monitoring (IPM), you can:
Case study: how proactive monitoring saved a retailer’s conversion rates
One of our customers recently experienced an outage in Australia which impacted the search functionality on their website. We were monitoring different user journeys on the site and were able to quickly narrow down the root cause.
The tests monitoring the search page showed failures; the search API endpoint was returning an unexpected response. The screenshot below (scatterplot graph) shows that the API endpoint was available and was returning results, but the JSON response content was incorrect. This caused the page to return zero results every time the customer hit search.
Impact on the end user
In this scenario, when users in Australia searched for products on the website using the search function, no results were returned.
The customer had end-to-end multi-step browser transaction tests set up using Catchpoint IPM. The test failures (as shown in the graph below) alerted the customer and they began investigating the root cause. The issue lasted for ~2 hours.
Why isn’t availability enough?
In this case, the endpoint was technically “available” and fast. But availability alone is not resilience. The key question was: is the correct content being returned?
This is why API monitoring needs to validate what the API delivers, not just whether it responds.
It was Catchpoint’s ability to validate the data being returned and the advanced alerting mechanism that helped the customer detect the issue and work towards the resolution.
What defines API resilience?
Four pillars underpin a resilient API strategy:
- Availability – is the API functional?
- Performance – does it respond within expected thresholds?
- Reachability – can users access it from their location?
- Reliability – does it behave consistently over time?
In practice, all four must work together. Missing just one can break the user journey, as the retailer’s search outage showed.
Why is proactive API monitoring essential?
Monitoring only homepage uptime is no longer enough. Users take multi-step journeys—from homepage, to search, to product, to checkout. If any step fails, the entire experience collapses.
Proactive API monitoring ensures every step works as intended, not just that the site is “up.” It gives teams the visibility to:
- Detect failures in critical functionality.
- Troubleshoot faster by eliminating blind spots.
- Protect conversion rates and brand trust.
Conclusion: how can you strengthen API resilience?
APIs are no longer hidden plumbing; they’re strategic assets. As enterprises rely on more APIs to deliver user experiences, resilience requires more than uptime checks—it demands monitoring for availability, performance, reachability, and reliability.
Catchpoint IPM enables teams to validate API performance from every angle, monitor end-to-end user journeys, and detect subtle failures like content mismatches that uptime checks miss. With proactive monitoring, SRE and DevOps teams can ensure APIs remain resilient, protecting both customer experience and business outcomes.
Learn more: Critical requirements for modern API monitoring
Summary
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