SolarWinds supercharges Application Programming Interface (API) integration with Speakeasy

Key Takeaways

About SolarWinds

SolarWinds (opens in a new tab) delivers seamless resiliency and efficiency, safeguarding across hybrid IT environments by integrating observability, database performance, and IT service management. SolarWinds has collaborated with Speakeasy to generate robust Software Development Kits (SDKs), significantly reducing API integration time and transforming the developer experience, leading to faster and more accessible innovation.

The Challenge: Complexity, Time, and Maintenance

SolarWinds has seen usage of their API grow significantly over time – not just from customers, but also from internal teams who have developed their own tools atop the APIs. Given this increased interest in the REST API, SolarWinds recognized that improving the API developer experience was a key priority. Existing manually-created SDK clients were effective, but had become complex and time-consuming to maintain.

• Evaluating open-source options: The team considered Open-Source tools like the OpenAPI Generator (formerly Swagger Codegen) but determined that the required staffing and maintenance efforts were unsustainable for an enterprise-scale solution.
• Developer friction: Without a reliable, automated SDK solution, API updates would require extensive rework, increasing the risk of errors and frustrating developers.

The Solution: Speakeasy

After evaluating multiple commercial options, SolarWinds selected Speakeasy for its:

• Ergonomic SDKs: Speakeasy-generated SDKs offered intuitive interfaces and ease of integration, allowing developers to start building immediately.
• Automated testing and documentation: Built-in test generation and seamless documentation integration ensured that every API change was automatically validated and reflected in up-to-date code samples.

“Getting started with Speakeasy was trivial. We quickly saw how much smoother our API integrations could be.”

Greg Poirier, Principal Software Engineer, SolarWinds

The Results: Enhanced Engineering Efficiency and Developer Experience

SolarWinds is expanding its SDK offerings to six languages, with the SolarWinds SDK for Go already available. This multi-language support empowers more developers to build on the SolarWinds® Platform.

• Accelerated development: SolarWinds is on track to reduce integration cycles significantly, enabling developers to focus on innovation.
• Improved API reliability: Automated contract testing ensures API updates are validated, leading to a robust user experience.
• Optimized resource allocation: Eliminating manual and open-source challenges has increased efficiency and freed up engineering resources for high-impact projects.
• Enhanced developer experience: Internal teams and external customers benefit from ready-to-use SDKs with features like automatic retries and standardized error handling.

“The Speakeasy team has been fantastic. The support feels like a real partnership, making all the difference.”

Greg Poirier, Principal Software Engineer, SolarWinds

Ready to Accelerate Your API Integration?

The SolarWinds journey—from in-house struggles to a streamlined, automated SDK solution with Speakeasy—shows how the right tools can revolutionize developer experience and contribute to a more efficient and resilient IT environment. By reducing integration times and eliminating maintenance burdens, SolarWinds can focus on innovation.

Book a demo (opens in a new tab) or start a free Speakeasy trial (opens in a new tab) today.