Innovating in the “API Economy” is the goal behind a new partnership announced this week between open source giant Red Hat (RHT) and API management company 3scale, which will pool their resources to deliver an open, standards-based platform for API management.

The new offering is based on 3scale’s API Management Platform and Red Hat JBoss Middleware. By integrating the two packages, the companies noted, they provide a way to expose software services as APIs while also delivering access control, analytics and developer/partner portals.

Red Hat and 3scale believe new API management technologies will be key to the channel in the future. They’re probably right, given the extent to which modern applications need to interact with each other in the age of the cloud, as well as the rise of connected apps that are not web-based, and therefore not compatible with more traditional communications frameworks. In this new environment, as 3scale emphasizes on its website, APIs are vital both for allowing businesses to make maximum use of their internal IT resources, as well as interfacing their software with partners and customers.

“3scale is committed to making it easy to get full visibility into, and control over, assets accessed via APIs,” said 3scale CEO Steven Willmott. “Our joint effort with Red Hat strongly supports these efforts, and provides a highly useful and complete suite of complementary tools for service integrators and API developers.”

Rob Cardwell, vice president, Strategic Partnerships and Alliances, Red Hat, added, “APIs have become a vital part of today’s digital economy. As they become ubiquitous, organizations need to look beyond the technology and build an API strategy that fully embraces their business potential. Together, Red Hat and 3scale offer a comprehensive, open and trusted API platform to help organizations realize that potential.”