Longhaus believes that an expanding API economy represents one of the significant trends of 2012. Enterprises with established and mature processes will be compelled to make business applications available through APIs to drive business growth and expose new opportunities. Also, businesses seeking new capabilities will purchase access to APIs instead of investing in the building of capabilities in-house. APIs will move from playing a strong role to a fundamental role in the way that businesses interact with other businesses, end-users, customers and in reaching new markets.