Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today extended its push to transform the network into a powerful platform for the delivery of applications by announcing a new cloud based developer platform and a game-changing business model that flips the traditional API (application programming interface) aggregation approach on its head. The new elements mark a critical next step in the company's application enablement vision -- combining the trusted capabilities of service providers with the speed and innovation of the Web to provide both consumers and business users with richer experiences.

Alcatel-Lucent's developer platform provides service providers and enterprises with tools that enable partners and third-party developers to build, test, manage and distribute applications across networks, including television, broadband Internet and mobile. Alcatel-Lucent is the first to supply such a comprehensive cloud-based platform to open network-based services for service providers, MSOs and enterprises which are looking for ways to help 14+ million developers around the globe more easily adopt their APIs. It allows service providers to securely expose their unique network APIs to more developers than ever before. As a result, service providers and developers can jointly facilitate the creation and delivery of thousands of new, compelling applications. By speeding services innovation to service provider customers, more applications will be tailored to vertical markets and ultimately drive more revenue across the value chain.

The platform builds on the Alcatel-Lucent Application Exposure Suite announced in December, by including a set of developer tools, a virtual sandbox and application distribution to address the entire developer lifecycle and support service providers and enterprises with an end-to-end API and application solution.

Alcatel-Lucent’s API aggregation and bundling model introduces a bold new approach that enables application revenue sharing to benefit developers, service providers and enterprises alike. The model bundles a collection of two or more APIs/Web services that developers can use to create a new application. The approach gives developers access to new smart API bundles without requiring burdensome upfront API fees that until now have been a major pain point for developers. By incenting application creation and mobilizing the value chain in this way, network providers can attract new developers leveraging their network assets. Developers can build audiences for their applications, and enterprises can gain solutions to their business challenges. The bundles are the next iteration of the Open API Service the company announced in December 2009.

To support the adoption of the API bundle model, Alcatel-Lucent also unveiled two new developer tools -- a virtual sandbox and a dashboard. The Virtual Sandbox provides developers with a comprehensive environment in which they can simulate, test and verify new applications across service provider networks for delivery across a wide range of platforms. Developed through Alcatel-Lucent’s extensive engagement with customers worldwide, the Virtual Sandbox helps provide a scalable and comprehensive testing ground to accelerate development, distribution and deployment of new services.

The Dashboard offers developers real-time business analysis of application activity, API statistics, costs and the revenue potential of applications. Using the dashboard, developers can explore the various business model options associated with a given service and make an educated determination about its relative value and revenue potential before committing significant time or expense to creating the application. It also can be used to track the success metrics of an application over time.

“We’re in this to help everyone in the application ecosystem make money,” said Johnson Agogbua, head of Application Enablement solutions for Alcatel-Lucent. "The research we’ve done with more than 1,000 developers shows that the bundled approach to aggregation could drive up an API’s value by 200-300 percent versus its value on its own. It also shows that developers want to participate in API revenue sharing and have access to service provider analytics.”

"Developers would love to have access to the key functionality of a service provider's network through easy to use web-centric APIs, as well as business modeling tools," said Tobias Kemper, vice president of Nimbuzz Inc., USA, a mobile VoIP operator & social network aggregator. “Alcatel-Lucent's developer program and platform delivers this by providing an extensive test environment and analysis tools to take some of the guess-work out of the planning process and enables developers to do what they do best – leverage functionality from various sources (handsets, network, the Web) and mash them up with their own unique innovations to create powerful new applications for the next generation of mobile web users."

source:C114