Alcatel-Lucent buys API clearing house purchase for developers

Alcatel-Lucent announced it was buying ProgrammableWeb, an API clearing house service site for developers. The deal will augment Alcatel-Lucent’s Open API Program that seeks to create a federation API set above multiple service provider networks to provide a seamless way for developers to build applications that will then run on multiple provider networks.

We think this is a very good idea, in no small part because ProgrammableWeb will help Alcatel-Lucent create an API picture that can advance further and faster than operators or standards bodies would be likely to advance. We noted when Open API first came out that the key requirement for it would be to build some feature mass and credibility without being stuck in the slow cycle of standardization that characterizes most carrier efforts. Now we hope that Alcatel-Lucent will move some highly useful and still-not-standard things forward. Alcatel-Lucent will keep the company operating independently.