DataOps

At Nexla, we think of APIs are belonging to one of two categories: service or data. A service API is a building block for a developer, a way to hook into another application’s functionality. It’s how developers can build apps in Slack, or add google maps to a web app. Data APIs on the other hand are a bit more limited. They allow developers to pull data from a source and then use that data however they see fit. They don’t offer any additional functionality or services. And that’s why they’re facing extinction.

Film buffs will remember the above scene from Stanley Kubrick’s iconic Dr. Strangelove, in which President Muffley says, “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!” The absurd, satirical line is oddly applicable to what’s happening today in machine learning teams. The machine learning folks shouldn’t be data wrangling- they should be focused on machine learning. But because we don’t often receive our data in a usable format, valuable time is spent transforming, moving, and cleaning data.