Alcatel-Lucent introduced a new cloud based developer platform to make it easier for service providers to open their networks for application developers.
Specifically, the cloud-based developer platform, which builds on the Alcatel-Lucent Application Exposure Suite announced in December, provides tools to build, test, manage and distribute applications across networks, including television, broadband Internet and mobile.
Alcatel-Lucent said a key advantage of its approach is that it allows service providers to securely expose their unique network APIs to more developers than ever before.
Significantly, this API aggregation and bundling model enables application revenue sharing to benefit developers, service providers and enterprises alike. The model bundles a collection of two or more APIs/Web services that developers can use to create a new application. The approach gives developers access to new smart API bundles without requiring burdensome upfront API fees that until now have been a major pain point for developers.
Among the new tools are a virtual sandbox and a dashboard.
- The Virtual Sandbox allows developers to simulate, test and verify new applications across service provider networks for delivery across a wide range of platforms.
- The Dashboard offers developers real-time business analysis of application activity, API statistics, costs and the revenue potential of applications. Using the dashboard, developers can explore the various business model options associated with a given service and make an educated determination about its relative value and revenue potential before committing significant time or expense to creating the application. It also can be used to track the success metrics of an application over time.
“We’re in this to help everyone in the application ecosystem make money,” said Johnson Agogbua, head of Application Enablement solutions for Alcatel-Lucent. “The research we’ve done with more than 1,000 developers shows that the bundled approach to aggregation could drive up an API’s value by 200-300 percent versus its value on its own. It also shows that developers want to participate in API revenue sharing and have access to service provider analytics.”http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/application_enablementhttp://