customer story

Edmunds.com

“ Our API has become a vital part of the business. API Monitoring allows us to set up complicated API monitors that include our OAuth layer with just a few clicks. ”

– Jim Naylor, Director of Product Management

Runscope Keeps Edmunds.com In the Driver's Seat of Its API

The leading resource for car shopping and automotive information, Edmunds.com helps more than 18 million drivers find the car that meets their needs. The Edmunds API includes vehicle pricing, dealer listings, test-drive reviews and more, which developers can easily integrate into their services or apps. In fact, more than 9,000 partners and developers rely on the Edmunds API, including many strategic partnerships that bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue to Edmunds each year.
To keep those partners happy, Edmunds needed a reliable way to monitor the health of its API. "We have to know that our API is not only available, but returning the correct data," says Jim Naylor, Director of Product Management at Edmunds. "Because our API has become a vital part of the business, making sure the API is healthy is critical."

Transitioning to Truly Automated API Monitoring

Before finding the right API monitoring and testing tool, Naylor's team relied on simple scripts to execute performance and regression tests from a local machine, but the home-grown solution left much to be desired for keeping an eye on production runtime of the API. "We knew we had to find a more comprehensive solution for API testing and monitoring—one that would scale with the growth of our platform," adds Naylor.
Furthermore, Edmunds needed a way to automatically test its service frequently, so the team could stay ahead of issues and address them before customers were impacted. "When an API endpoint went down or data wasn't delivered properly, we were finding out about it through our users instead of any existing automation we had in place," says Naylor.
Naylor signed up for Runscope and began testing immediately. Naylor adds, "As soon as we started using Runscope, it scratched the itch of everything I was looking for."

Keeping Everything 200 OK, 24/7

Runscope keeps an eye on Edmunds' mission-critical API, which directly impacts partners and developers, and even powers the Edmunds.com website. The cloud-based service monitors the Edmunds API with automated scheduled tests.
"When we were using simple scripts to monitor and test our APIs, they required significant time and resources to set up complex, multi-step tests," says Naylor. "But Runscope validates specific data points, and allows us to set up complicated tests that include our OAuth layer with just a few clicks."
Now, when a problem does occur or an endpoint goes down, Edmunds.com hears about it immediately. And that means, Naylor and his team can spring into action before those problems impact customers, or big-name partners like MSN, Honda, Toyota and Bankrate.com.
Automatic notifications are key to staying ahead of these API issues. "The Runscope webhook into Zapier has been helpful in being able to quickly fire something off when there's a test failure," says Naylor.

Maintaining the Pace with Growing Success

Within the first two months of use, Runscope more than proved its value. "Over the holidays when Edmunds.com was operating with fewer staff, Runscope captured two significant site failures signaled by some of our API endpoints going down," said Naylor. As a result, he was able to nip those problems in the bud, bringing the site back online and keeping customers in holiday spirits.
Having used Runscope for almost a year, Runscope is providing even greater value in seamlessly scaling with Edmunds as its API platform grows. "Our API usage has grown a remarkable 40 percent in just two months, and Runscope has only become more valuable," adds Naylor. "Runscope allows us to keep our focus on what we do best, and we trust Runscope to make sure we don't miss a beat."

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