customer story

Human API

“ API Monitoring verifies that Human API is returning the right data, even for multi-step workflows and chained requests. ”

– Ola Wiberg, Co-founder and VP of Engineering

Human API Counts on API Monitoring to Keep Its Services in Good Health

Human API is a company on a mission. The startup aims to free up individuals' health data, including heart rate, calories burned and blood glucose level, all of which can be stored in dozens of data streams from health apps, wearables, sensors and the like. As Human API co-founder and VP of Engineering Ola Wiberg puts it, "Our mission is to free your health data. We've built a platform to make it easy to get your health data from point A to point B, all while keeping the control entirely with you, the user."
Bringing all that data together in one place is technically challenging and something most wellness app developers would prefer not to worry about. They don't have to with Human API, whose consumer-mediated platform does the background work of aggregating diverse data sources for anyone from enterprise to individual app developers. By incorporating Human API into their own apps, developers can focus on doing what they do best: creating tomorrow's next-generation healthcare apps.

Deep Testing to Ensure Reliable API Infrastructure

With an entire business built on an API-powered platform, Human API was steadfast in its belief that the API had to be performing optimally at all times, and if ever there was a bug, it could be solved quickly. "In order to maintain the highest level of performance, we knew deep API monitoring and testing was key to both our technical and business operations," says Wiberg. "That's where API Monitoring came in."
The engineering team at Human API attempted to build its own testing system, however, the team needed a more robust solution that they could implement fast. "Pinging endpoints wasn't enough," says Wiberg. "We needed the deep testing capabilities and suite of tools that API Monitoring provides."

Instant Value from Free Trial and Beyond

Wiberg signed up for a free trial of API Monitoring and was impressed by how quickly he could set it up and get testing. "API Monitoring provided value within just a few hours and got us to market fast," adds Wiberg. "Subscribing to a API Monitoring team plan was a no-brainer for us."
Human API saw immediate ROI in saving time and headcount, as its previous practice of manually monitoring its API plus testing was lengthy and distracted from its core competency. Before using API Monitoring, even simple tests required a lot of boilerplate code, and Human API engineers would have to code scripts to run tests for the API's more than 30 endpoints, and then make sure those tests were running properly. Plus, manual testing is not scalable, and given Human API's growing customer base, the need for a solution that can grow with the company is critical.
With the full catalog of tools that API Monitoring provides, Human API's small engineering team saves hours and can see not only that the API is reachable and returning a response, but also that it is operating correctly. "API Monitoring verifies that Human API is returning the right data, even for complicated multi-step workflows and chained requests," says Wiberg.
Human API uses API Monitoring for automated monitoring and testing in a wide range of timeframes and nine locations across the globe. Along with API tests, Human API leverages Traffic Inspector to log and easily debug any and all API tests it performs. These tools allow the team to compare requests side by side to quickly identify differences between successful and failed calls. Plus, Human API gets notified in real time of API test failures through API Monitoring integrations with email and HipChat.

Satisfied Customers and a Booming Business

Since signing on with API Monitoring, Human API has maintained a very low level of customer support issues related to the API. "There are times when we have to perform substantial changes to our API, which needs to be done thoughtfully and deliberately given that we have so many customers actively using it," says Wiberg. "With the production monitoring that API Monitoring provides, we know that the code we are pushing is working."
Human API is growing fast, with more than 7,500 developers using its API. Some are individual developers, some are startups, and many of its customers are large health IT vendors and provider groups implementing corporate health programs, among other use cases. As with any startup in a trending industry, Human API could scale exponentially overnight.
"We don't have time to waste with other tools," says Wiberg. "We are confident that our API is working, and that has allowed us to continue to grow our platform and fulfill our mission to free up health data for everyone."

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