Power of the API

As the internet-of-things gets smarter, the number of devices and systems using application programming interfaces (API) to communicate is only set to increase. This is also made easier with the maturity of web API standards, such as RESTful services and the adoption of tooling that can “glue” these API’s into usable applications.

Recently I discussed an option of using the cloud to scale simulation what-if scenarios that are intrinsically parallel. I discussed a technical approach how our WITNESS simulation software nicely hooks into the Microsoft Azure Batch service which allows what-if scenarios to run at hyper-scale, greatly compressing the time-to-answer.

What if you wanted to access a service that just did this for you? A service that removed all the technical configuration and setup? A simulation experimentation service that can quickly integrate into your existing application or solution, using web standards?

If you are a person or an organization that wants to accelerate value in your own solution, improving business performance, and extending your business services with predictive simulation to the widest possible audience, then this API may be for you.

The WITNESS.io service gives you access to our predictive simulation capabilities using a RESTful service to submit a what-if scenario, along with any input datasets and collect the results when it’s done.

This service is hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform and consumes a WITNESS or BPSim/BPMN simulation model. It is a service that scales to meet your demands.

The API Flow

As this is a secure service, a security token must first be acquired. Once you register for the service, https://io.witness.cloud/account/register, your user credentials are used to obtain a security token for use with the API.

The Web API has endpoints to upload a what-if scenario, create a simulation experiment, check its status and get the simulation results when the what-if scenario is complete.

A typical application can be up and running with just 5 API calls as outlined by figure 1.

Figure 1 – API flow for the WITNESS.io service

More details and examples of how to invoke these API’s is available at https://io.witness.cloud/experiment/getstarted

Any feedback on this service, or features you would like to see, do let me know jhorgan@lanner.com.

Also check out https://www.lanner.com/technology/witness-io-simulation-execution-web-service.html