Data Management Glossary
REST (Representational State Transfer)
REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems and is widely used in the development of Web services. Distributed file systems send and receive data via REST and Web services that use REST are known as RESTful APIs or REST APIs.
Because of its lighter-weight communications between producer and consumer, REST has gained wide adoption. Its architecture makes it fast, easy to implement and easy to use. REST is commonly used in cloud-based APIs and modern applications where scalability, portability and simplicity are essential.
How does REST work as an architectural style for distributed systems and Web services?
REST is a software architectural style designed for distributed hypermedia systems. It separates components and enables distributed file systems to send and receive data via REST APIs. Web services using REST are called RESTful APIs or REST APIs. The architecture emphasizes simplicity and lighter weight communication between producer and consumer, which makes REST popular for Internet-based services, social media sites, mobile applications and automated business processes.
What are the core benefits of REST APIs and why are they widely adopted?
REST APIs provide several key benefits. They offer a uniform interface, so you do not need to know the inner workings of an application to use it. Their operations are well defined, allowing data in different storage formats to be acted upon by the same REST APIs. REST is also stateless, meaning each interaction is self-contained and does not interfere with the next.
Because of these characteristics, REST APIs are fast, easy to implement, and easy to use. As a result, REST has gained wide adoption, particularly for cloud-based APIs authored by companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
What are the six guiding principles that define REST architecture?
REST is defined by six guiding principles. The client–server principle separates the user interface from data storage, improving portability and scalability. The stateless principle ensures each information request is wholly self-contained, with session state kept entirely on the client. The cacheable constraint allows a client cache to reuse response data for later equivalent requests.
The uniform interface simplifies the overall architecture through identification of resources, manipulation of resources through representations, self-descriptive messages, and hypermedia as the engine of application state. The layered system principle organizes components into hierarchical layers, where each component cannot see beyond the immediate layer it interacts with. Finally, code on demand (optional) allows client functionality to be extended by downloading and executing code such as applets or scripts.
Why is REST often preferred over SOAP for Internet-based services?
REST is often preferred over SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) because it uses less bandwidth, making it more suitable for use over the Internet. SOAP requires writing or using both a server program and a client program, whilea RESTful Web services can be easily leveraged using most tools, including free or inexpensive options.
REST is also much easier to scale than SOAP services. Development time is typically reduced when using REST instead of SOAP. However, REST does not provide direct support for generating a client from server-side-generated metadata, whereas SOAP supports this through Web Service Description Language (WSDL). Despite this limitation, REST is commonly chosen for Internet-based services such as Facebook and most public cloud providers.
How are REST APIs used in unstructured data management and cloud integrations?
Open APIs and a REST-based architecture are key to many modern integrations. Using REST APIs provides customers with significant flexibility. For example, REST APIs can be used to get analysis results and reports on all data, run data migrations, data archiving, and data replication operations, search for data across storage systems using metadata and tags, and build virtual data lakes to export to AI and Big Data applications.
A REST API is a powerful, lightweight and fast way to interact with data management software. Its flexibility and scalability make it well suited for cloud-based environments and enterprise data operations.
REST (Representational State Transfer) is a lightweight architectural style for distributed systems and Web services that emphasizes stateless communication, a uniform interface, and scalability. Its guiding principles, reduced bandwidth usage and ease of implementation make REST APIs widely adopted across cloud platforms, social media, mobile applications and modern data management environments.
