---
title: "Rewiring America deploys Zuplo to accelerate their API program"
description: "A discussion with Tom Carden of Rewiring America about how they"
canonicalUrl: "https://zuplo.com/blog/2023/04/21/rewiring-america-accelerates-api-program-with-zuplo"
pageType: "blog"
date: "2023-04-21"
authors: "josh"
tags: "Customer Stories"
image: "https://zuplo.com/og?text=Rewiring%20America%20Accelerates%20API%20Program%20with%20Zuplo"
---
I recently got to interview Tom Carden, Head of Engineering at Rewiring America,
where he spoke about how they deployed Zuplo’s API Management platform to
accelerate their API program.

<YouTubeVideo videoId="wUKLrNIRC_8" />

[Rewiring America](https://www.rewiringamerica.org/), a nonprofit focused on
electrifying homes, businesses, and communities in the US, required a solution
for their IRA [Savings Calculator API](https://www.rewiringamerica.org/api).
“The IRA is the Inflation Reduction Act here in the US" explained Tom, “that
puts a bunch of tax credits and rebates in the hands of everyday consumers to
help them make a choice for cleaner, safer, and just plain better electric
appliances in their home. Forty-two percent of US energy-related emissions come
from our homes and we can dramatically reduce that by upgrading the machines we
use daily."

The initial calculator was built as a client-side app but then started receiving
requests for an API so that folks could host the functionality on their own
website.

Being an experienced Engineering Manager, Tom knew that there was a lot of
potential “wheel reinvention" ahead to start a new API program — requiring API
authentication, rate-limiting to prevent noisy neighbor problems and abuse, and
developer documentation with integrated key management; we call these the
[three pillars of an API program](/learning-center/the-three-pillars-of-an-api-program/).

Tom spent some time evaluating different off-the-shelf options before selecting
Zuplo to help them get their API to market quicker. “I think I was originally
evaluating Zuplo as a documentation host. But once I understood that it was a
gateway that could deal with API key management, validation, rate limiting, and
also had a long tail of programmable plugins; I was pretty much sold at that
point but went off to do my due diligence on alternatives nonetheless."

Zuplo helped Tom and his team move faster than the alternatives thanks to the
focus on developer experience with real-time feedback (press save, and your
changes are live to test) and offered a gitops integration with GitHub, meaning
they could deploy multiple environments to the edge in seconds.

Tom also described the value of using Zuplo versus building a solution in-house,
**saving weeks of engineering time and avoiding ongoing maintenance costs**. “We
could bring this stuff in-house and get something good enough. But I look at
that as opportunity costs, we're not solving the problems that are unique to our
organization. We're spending time reinventing the wheel. So I'd rather buy."

With Zuplo's help, Rewiring America can focus on its mission to help Americans
upgrade the machines they depend on and avoid reinventing the wheel when it
comes to offering a great developer experience to users of their API.