VMware Inc.

01/15/2022 | News release | Distributed by Public on 01/16/2022 00:46

Leveraging Automation in VMware Skyline Advisor Pro

Skyline Advisor Pro introduced the Insights API that you can leverage to automate some common workflows. And if you don't know exactly what an API is, that's Ok. We're going to define what an API is, outline its advantages, show how to access the Insights API in Skyline Advisor Pro, and end with some common use-cases of how you can leverage the tool.

What is an API?

Chances are that you know that API stands for Application Programming Interface. In a nutshell, an API is both a piece of software running on a networked server and a component of programming code. APIs provide a secure and standardized way for applications to work with each other and they automated the retrieval, and even updating of information, without the need to go into a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

For example, your company may have a monitoring tool or process that reports potential environment vulnerabilities and even tracks their recommended fixes. And it may be your job to manually search and prioritize these potential issues and then send this data into a ticketing system like Jira, ServiceNow, or even PagerDuty, so that your entire team can be aware of what's being remediated.

While something like this may not be an issue with a small environment that may have a dozen or so tickets to manually enter, think about the productivity sink you'd have if you had a few hundred of them on a full-blown production environment that is operating at scale.

With an API, you can eliminate the manual intervention on your part and send information, like Skyline's Findings Data, directly to these systems.

API and Automation Advantages

As you can already imagine, APIs can help increase your productivity. The scenario that I just described could be developed as an application, but, if that data is already exposed as an API, you wouldn't have to build a new tool from the ground, which would save you valuable development time and enable your company to realize its business goals faster.

And speaking of the productivity benefits that API provide, by way of helping to automate common tasks, there's a monetary component tied to it as well. APIs can save your business money.

Since APIs significantly reduce the development effort, using them to create an application is effective in reducing costs.

With APIs, developers can fetch most of the data they need to integrate with other applications-without the need of starting from scratch. Instead of spending their precious resources and time on reinventing the wheel, they can use cost-effective APIs from third-party providers, like VMware.

Since the APIs' core functionality is connectivity-they enable different systems, applications, and platforms to connect and share data with one another and perform varied types of functions. Without APIs all these tools and the benefits that they provide could be siloed, which reduces their impact on the bottom-line of your business.

Conclusion

In summary, Skyline Advisor Pro and its Insights API feature can help you:

  • Increase Productivity
  • Save Money
  • Connect Teams

And all these benefits enable you to Drive Innovation for Your Business.

If you want to see a deep-dive of the Insights API feature in action, including its step-by-step configuration and script examples, please refer to this video and this documentation on VMware {code}.