Alcatel-Lucent announced an “open source software engine” called apiGrove, which it said will enable companies to more effectively manage the APIs they use to expose the capabilities of cloud platforms, telecoms networks or enterprise infrastructure.

The vendor said that APIs, which enable the flow of data between applications and devices and provide access to the core network assets, are critical for the creation of new services. apiGrove is designed to “give companies an easy way to manage the APIs they use to make their networks more programmable, supporting the development of services for both internal operations and delivery to consumers and businesses”.

The installation package, source code and documentation are available immediately through open-source repository GitHub, under the “business-friendly” Apache 2.0 licence. It is based on its Open API Platform, which the company said is “used by communications service providers around the world”.

Alcatel-Lucent said that one of the key benefits of its open-source approach is that companies can contribute to the basic apiGrove code, helping ensure that their particular requirements are met.

As this moves forward, the company will “continue in its role as lead contributor to the project”.

It said that: “API management remains a key tenet of the company’s Open API Platform and the company will continue to make additional capabilities available as part of Alcatel-Lucent’s commercial API management offer.”

Last month, the vendor launched a consulting and professional services business intended to help operators exploit opportunities through exposing APIs to developers.