Show HN: CloudRail – API Integration Solution

I did signed up for a free account, do I need to do anything else to be notified when .NET SDK is ready?

Just tested it and you are right. Don't ask me why, works with Safari. We'll fix that.

Good question, thanks. You are right, in case CloudRail goes down no one will maintain the libraries anymore. Despite the fact that we won't go down :), you have to ask yourself if the risk is really that big? The service definitely saves you time now and for the next X years. How many time would you invest during that period with native integrations? Definitely one by one SDKs to integrate and I bet some of them need to be replaced as well. E.g. Dropbox from v1 to v2 was a complete new API and SDK. I think integrations need to be maintained anyway and in the worst case (CloudRail goes down) you have to invest max the same time compared to manual. We love open source and this is an option as well.

1) What APIs has your team built before that qualifies them to build this?

Our team has been in the API business for 4 years now with a lot of different projects and products.

2) How will you manage changes, bugs, and obscure documentation issues in the APIs that will be made available through you?

We have a system called API Change Management. Every connected API is monitored for changes. Once something happens or is announced we update our SDKs and put that information back in the system. Afterwards the system checks all SDKs which are implemented by customers and which integrations they use and automatically notify affected ones by email and via our portal. .. 4) What language will the API be written in?

Currently we support Node.js, Android, Java and iOS (Swift & Objective-C)

5) Regarding API access security: How will you handle access to multiple APIs for the same client when each API requires a different set of tokens?

We let customers use their own API credentials which they get directly from the providers.

Nope, we will reach out to you when it's ready

So on the surface, this is essentially just a library that implements an abstract interface to a bunch of "cloud services", and then provides implementations of those abstractions for some of the actual cloud services.

It adds API tracking, so presumably there is some connection back to CloudRail. What happens if CloudRail goes down or is responding slowly or the connection is blocked? Does the library still work?

Seeing as it's also only a library, if someone stops paying, does it continue to function? Obviously if the upstream provider(s) change their APIs in a backwards-incompatible way, it would break, which is no different than if you use the provider directly. It seems like what you're really paying for here is the work done to build the library, the updates (and monitoring for need to update), API tracking service, and support. You're not actually using CloudRail's systems for the connection, so is there a license check that disables the library if the CloudRail account goes dead?

The nature of this abstraction also means lowest common denominator. The use of "interfaces" over top is a good way to handle this, but could also get messy. When you have a certain function that is only available on one provider, or is not available on only one of several providers, how do you decide when to create a new interface vs not support that function vs implement it as a "throw not implemented error" (or do you have any never do that)?