DigitalGlobe Sees Booming Commercial Opportunity Using APIs

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 28 February, 2016– Software AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) today announced that DigitalGlobe, a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth observation and advanced geospatial solutions, selected Software AG’s Digital Business Platform to underpin their ability to provide off-the-shelf, planet-wide imagery for defense, intelligence, and commercial enterprises.

DigitalGlobe provides 98% digital coverage of the earth, is the first company to provide 30cm satellite imagery, and is the only company with four high-resolution satellites in orbit. Their imagery is used by organizations to get vaccinations to villagers in Africa, help respond to areas hit by tsunamis, optimize food sources in the Philippines, create satellite imagery for Google, and predict global climate change.  

Steve Miller, DigitalGlobe’s manager of service architecture and governance, commented: “Imagine what could be done with our imagery if we could enable more people to develop with it. Exposing them via APIs would give them, literally, the world. And, we can do this today with a simple click of an online button.”

DigitalGlobe already uses webMethods to create an integrated architecture that brings together imagery access, metadata around that imagery, and interfaces with financial and control systems; in essence, everything that has to come together to create a comprehensive digital imagery platform.

DigitalGlobe is adding webMethods API (application programming interfaces) to extend its digital community as a way to expose core business functions—in real-time—to business partners and across departments in their company. The new API capability at DigitalGlobe will empower both internal and external developers to create rich and engaging applications for their customers allowing ‘one-click’ exposure of services that will result in additional revenue. This, in turn, drives innovation far beyond the scope of the company’s digital imagery. 

DigitalGlobe built crucial API building blocks for composing applications ensuring they can manage the rapidly changing demands of the digital imagery sector. This enables them to scale their systems and their online capabilities up—or down—rapidly depending on their customer demand. DigitalGlobe uses Software AG’s CentraSite, an API catalog and services registry/repository, to store and share API services easily.

Steve Miller continued: “By adding webMethod’s new API Cloud capabilities, which includes the hosting and integration of consistent, scalable APIs, we will now be able to offer all these services in the cloud for our partners anywhere in the world. When API management is added to the mix, we can provide real revenue generation opportunities and bring value into the company with minimal additional effort. The ability to quickly plug into our digital platform and immediately consume (and contribute) data will shape our customer’s experience positively and is something we believe is critical.”

Software AG’s Digital Business Platform is an integrated set of proven technologies and tools to manage the digital transformation and implement new business designs. It comprises five seamlessly integrated building blocks comprising business and IT transformation, analytics and decisions, integration (including API), process, and in-memory data.