Developers navigating Cisco BroadWorks probably have at least one thing in common: frustration. BroadWorks is widely known and globally well-established but can come with its share of issues – specifically inefficiency and lack of automation. There’s hope, though, for the millions of BroadWorks users out there, in the form of REST APIs.
Before we get into how developers can save time with REST APIs – and how they solve the problems presented by BroadWorks – it’s important to understand a brief history of BroadWorks and how the platform developed into its current state.
BROADWORKS DEVELOPMENT: A TIMELINE
BroadWorks was created by BroadSoft in 1998 as a platform through which service providers could build voice communications offerings. BroadSoft was the first to develop a voice-over IP (VoIP) application switch for providers, making it possible to have one centralized BroadWorks platform in a data center that could serve multiple enterprises, locations, and customers. BroadWorks was 100% software-based, so it was a popular choice compared to its competitors’ solutions – which generally required a physical appliance.
In 2018, Cisco acquired BroadSoft. Up until then, the two companies had been in constant competition. Cisco procured BroadSoft in an effort to move toward software and away from appliance-based development. This strategic move enabled a voice component in Cisco’s WebEx product that wasn’t possible before.
Today, Cisco has expanded its focus in the industry, concentrating more on networking, cloud, and cyber security solutions. This priority shift led to many of the issues BroadWorks users are currently experiencing, including inefficiency, siloed systems, slow provisioning, and a lack of automation.
ENTER REST APIS
REST (Representational State Transfer) is a set of standards and guidelines that allow software to communicate via the internet to help simplify integrations. A REST API essentially takes requests for resources and returns them in a standardized representation that clients can easily interpret and make use of. This provides considerable flexibility to developers since it is faster and more lightweight with increased scalability.
SAVING TIME WITH ODIN
Application development with BroadWorks is clunky at best – and laborious and inefficient as a general rule. As a result of elements being bolted on to different versions over the years, BroadWorks has a number of prerequisites that have to be built out, and very specific call and response ordering that often varies by version. This is time consuming and generally requires the deep knowledge and skills of a senior developer – or an entire team of developers with expertise in the nuances of the native OCI within BroadWorks.
Odin is a productivity and automation platform for BroadWorks that helps to dramatically simplify the development process. With Odin, developers can achieve a roughly 500-to-1 reduction in the volume of API calls that need to be developed for basic provisioning. Even junior developers are familiar with REST – so not only will you save time with REST APIs, but you’ll save on the cost of hiring an expensive (and challenging to find) senior BroadWorks developer.
Odin also supports multiple versions of BroadWorks simultaneously, eliminating version control and version management. With Odin, redevelopment is a thing of the past – no matter what version you’re using, you only have to develop once and let Odin translate between versions.
DEVELOPMENT IN BROADWORKS, SIMPLIFIED
Odin’s powerful REST API helps you manage the fragmented and siloed systems of your own and your clients’ infrastructures. Odin streamlines development and cuts the complexity of BroadWorks, helping developers save time and money and have a few less headaches with REST APIs.
If you’re ready to simplify development and overcome the challenges of building voice services for your customers in BroadWorks, Odin is the answer. Get in touch with Rev.io today to schedule a demo.