We Engineer the Connective Layer Behind Every System You Run.
3Shadz designs, builds, secures and governs the APIs and integrations that connect your applications, platforms, data, cloud services and business systems, so information moves where it's needed, without duct-taped workarounds or point-to-point connections that break the moment something changes.
service: 3Shadz API & Integration Layer
connects_to:
- business_systems # ERP, CRM, finance
- commerce_platforms # payments, orders, inventory
- data_platforms # warehouses, lakes, analytics
- cloud_services # AWS, Azure, GCP
- partner_apis # vendors, marketplaces, banks
contract: versioned
auth: OAuth2 / API keys / mTLS
status: activeThe Discipline That Keeps Every System You Own Actually Connected
API Development & Integration is one of the eight specializations inside 3Shadz's Software Engineering practice: the discipline of designing, building, securing and governing the interfaces that let your applications, platforms and business systems exchange information reliably.
Most businesses don't run on a single system. They run on a CRM, an ERP, a handful of SaaS tools, a payment provider, an internal database, and whatever a partner or marketplace requires this quarter. API Development & Integration is the engineering work that turns that collection of separate systems into one that behaves like a coordinated whole.
We treat every integration as production infrastructure, not a one-off script: documented, versioned, monitored, and built to keep working when a downstream system changes.
Looking for the wider engineering picture? Head back to Software Engineering for all eight disciplines, or explore Enterprise Solutions under Solutions for how integration fits into a broader systems strategy.
Contract-First
We design and agree the API contract (endpoints, schemas, error behaviour) before a line of implementation code is written, so both sides know exactly what to expect.
Idempotent & Resilient
Retries, timeouts and partial failures are treated as normal operating conditions, not edge cases, so a dropped connection doesn't corrupt data on either end.
Secure by Default
Authentication, authorization and data handling are part of the design from the first diagram, not bolted on before a security review.
Documented & Versioned
Every API ships with real documentation and a versioning strategy, so consumers can upgrade on their own timeline instead of breaking on yours.
API Development & Integration Capabilities
From a single well-designed endpoint to the integration layer running an entire business. Select a capability to see what we build.
API Design & Development
REST and GraphQL APIs designed around clear resources and contracts, not whatever the underlying database happens to look like.
- 01 Contract-first schema design
- 02 REST & GraphQL implementation
- 03 Versioning & backward compatibility
- 04 Rate limiting & pagination patterns
System & Business Application Integration
Connecting the systems your teams already run (CRM, ERP, finance, HR and internal tools), so data entered once shows up everywhere it's needed.
- 01 CRM, ERP & finance system integration
- 02 Internal tool & data synchronization
- 03 Master data & single-source-of-truth patterns
- 04 Cross-department workflow automation
Third-Party & Partner Integration
Integrating the external services your product depends on (payments, logistics, communications and partner platforms) without letting their outages become yours.
- 01 Payment gateways & billing platforms
- 02 Logistics, shipping & marketplace APIs
- 03 Communication & notification services
- 04 Partner & vendor API onboarding
Legacy System Integration & Modernization
Wrapping older, harder-to-change systems in modern, well-documented APIs, so the rest of your architecture doesn't have to understand their internals.
- 01 API wrappers for legacy & on-prem systems
- 02 Database-to-API modernization
- 03 Gradual, strangler-pattern migration
- 04 Bridging old and new architectures safely
Event-Driven & Real-Time Integration
Beyond request/response: webhooks, message queues and event streams that let systems react to what just happened instead of polling for it.
- 01 Webhooks & callback design
- 02 Message queues & event streaming
- 03 Real-time data synchronization
- 04 Asynchronous workflow orchestration
API Management, Security & Governance
The operational layer that keeps a growing set of APIs safe, observable and consistent as more teams and systems start depending on them.
- 01 Authentication & authorization (OAuth2, keys, mTLS)
- 02 API gateways, throttling & rate limiting
- 03 Monitoring, logging & alerting
- 04 Developer documentation & API portals
One Governed Layer Between Your Systems and the Outside World
Every integration we build sits in the same place in the architecture: a single, observable layer between the systems you run internally and everything you need to reach outside your walls.
From Point-to-Point Connections to a Layer You Can Actually Trust
Most integration debt doesn't start as a bad decision: it starts as a quick connection between two systems that never got revisited. Here's what that pattern tends to cost, and what replaces it.
Without a Governed Layer
- Every new system means a new one-off connection to maintain
- Undocumented endpoints only one engineer fully understands
- A change on either side breaks the integration with no warning
- No shared view of what's actually connected to what
- Authentication and error-handling reinvented per connection
With the 3Shadz Integration Layer
- One governed layer that every new system connects through
- Documented, versioned contracts anyone on the team can read
- Backward-compatible changes and deprecation windows, not surprises
- A single, observable map of every connected system
- Consistent authentication, retries and error-handling everywhere
A Delivery Process Built for Systems That Have to Keep Running
Integrations touch systems that are already live. Our process is built around that constraint from the start.
Discover & Map
Catalogue the systems involved, how they currently exchange data (or don't), and where the real constraints are before designing anything.
Design the Contract
Define endpoints, schemas, authentication and error behaviour as a written contract both sides can build against.
Build & Secure
Implement the API or integration with authentication, validation and error-handling treated as core requirements, not extras.
Test Across Systems
Test against real system behaviour, including failure modes, latency and edge cases the happy path never shows you.
Deploy & Monitor
Release with monitoring, logging and alerting in place, so issues surface before they become outages.
Govern & Evolve
Track usage, manage versions, and evolve the contract deliberately as your systems change.
Integration Work That Holds Up After the Handover
APIs are easy to demo and hard to keep reliable once real systems, real traffic and real failures show up. Here's what we build in from the start.
Contract-First, Not Code-First
We agree what an API does before we build it, so both sides of an integration are working from the same understanding.
Secure & Compliant by Design
Authentication, authorization and data handling are part of the architecture, matched to your industry's requirements.
Built to Fail Gracefully
Retries, timeouts and idempotency are designed in, so a dropped connection degrades safely instead of corrupting data.
Vendor-Neutral & Standards-Based
We build on open, well-understood standards rather than locking you into a single platform's proprietary approach.
Observability Included
Monitoring, logging and alerting ship with the integration, not as a separate project after something breaks.
One Team, Start to Support
The engineers who design the contract build, test and support it afterward, so context never gets lost in a handover.
Protocols, Security & Platforms We Build On
We choose the protocol, gateway and security model that fit your systems and constraints, not a fixed toolkit applied to every project.
API Styles & Protocols
Messaging & Streaming
Security & Identity
API Gateways & Management
Cloud & Platform Integration
API Development & Integration: Frequently Asked Questions
Software Engineering is the full practice, covering eight disciplines. API Development & Integration is one of those disciplines: the specific work of designing, building and governing the interfaces that connect your systems to each other and to the outside world.
Both, often in the same engagement. Some projects start with a blank API contract; others start with two or more existing systems that need to talk to each other reliably.
It’s part of the design from the start, not a later addition, matched to the sensitivity of the data involved, using standards such as OAuth 2.0, API keys, or mutual TLS depending on what the systems and your compliance requirements call for.
We design contracts and monitoring to catch that early, and we favour versioning and backward-compatible changes on the APIs we build so consumers aren’t broken without warning.
Yes. We regularly build modern API layers on top of older systems that were never designed to be integrated with, so the rest of your architecture doesn’t need to understand their internals.
Fixed-scope delivery for a defined set of integrations, a dedicated engineering team for ongoing API work, or staff augmentation to extend your existing team: see Engagement Models for details, or talk to us about what fits your project.
Let’s Turn Your Systems Into One That Actually Talks to Itself.
Whether you need a single well-designed API or a governed integration layer across a dozen systems, our API Development & Integration team can help you build it right.