“This is unfortunate, because it’s no exaggeration to say that the API Mandate completely transformed Amazon as a business and laid the foundation for its success.”
Bezos told every team in 2002 to talk only through service interfaces built so outsiders could use them. No shared databases, no back doors, no exceptions. Engineers admire the memo and executives ignore it, because the hard part was never the technology. It was forcing every team inside the company to compete for internal customers like it was a market.