This week in APIs, the spotlight is on authentication and how it's evolving to support a new generation of API consumers.

What was once a simple choice between API keys and OAuth has become a broader architectural decision shaped by cloud-native workloads, machine identities, partner integrations, and AI agents.

As organizations automate more systems, long-lived credentials are giving way to short-lived, identity-based authentication. OAuth 2.1, mutual TLS, workload identity, and sender-constrained tokens each address different trust models, allowing API platforms to authenticate users, services, and autonomous systems more securely.

This reflects a broader shift toward Zero Trust and identity-first security. Rather than relying on shared secrets, modern platforms establish trust dynamically using verified identities and context-aware access controls, making authentication more resilient as API ecosystems grow in complexity.

The takeaway: There is no single authentication model for every API. The strongest API platforms apply the right authentication mechanism to the right consumer, balancing security, scalability, and developer experience across the entire API lifecycle.

The future of software is being built for both people and machines, and FOST India is where that conversation comes to life.

This August, FOST India brings together developers, architects, platform engineers, and technology leaders to explore how NextGen APIs are powering humans and AI agents alike. Alongside apidays India and GraphQL Day, the event features hands-on workshops, real-world case studies, and discussions spanning API security, monetization, AI-driven automation, platform engineering, and emerging technologies.

More than a conference, FOST India is a meeting place for practitioners shaping the next generation of digital systems, with a focus on practical learning, meaningful networking, and the technologies driving the future of software.

19-20 August 2026 · Conrad Bengaluru · Bengaluru, India

Discover FOST India →

We’re excited to welcome a great lineup of speakers at FOST Australia, including:

Akshay (Shay)Kumar (CBA) – on large scale agentic AI systems for enterprise.

Jeff Ishar (Okta) – on the journey from microservices to multi-agent systems

Sivaiah Yakkanti (AMD) – on AI-Driven Kubernetes operations

Anusha Gayan Jayasundara (WSO2 LLC) – on rethinking integration in the age of AI agents

Artem Koshelev (Atlassian) – on managing cloud infrastructure with CDKTF

Richard Owens (Vanillah) – on turning public APIs into revenue opportunities

We’re also proud to be supported by our global partners:

Google Cloud – a secure, AI-ready cloud platform that helps organizations build, deploy, and scale modern applications.

IBM – offering’ AI-driven orchestration platforms that assist developers across the entire software development lifecycle.

Boomi – connects every system, govern all agents, and control runaway AI costs with critical AI-native infrastructure.

Datadog – providing unified observability and cloud security