February 26, 2015

gRPC open-sourced

Google open-sourced gRPC on February 26, 2015 — a high-performance RPC framework using HTTPHyperText Transfer Protocol — the protocol browsers use to request and receive web pages./2 and Protocol Buffers.

What it was for

Google Cloud PlatformgRPC generates client and server stubs from `.proto` files — microservicesAn architecture splitting applications into small independent services — each deployed and scaled separately. call each other with typed contracts, streaming, and load balancing built in. KubernetesAn orchestration system for containers — schedules, scales, and manages fleets of services in production., etcd, and cloud APIs adopted it beside RESTRepresentational State Transfer — a style for web APIs using HTTP methods and resource URLs. and GraphQL. Example: a GoA language from Google — simple syntax, fast compilation, and built-in concurrency via goroutines. service exposes `GetUser` over HTTPHyperText Transfer Protocol — the protocol browsers use to request and receive web pages./2; a PythonA high-level language known for readability — dominant in data science, scripting, and web backends. client calls it with generated stubs.

Companies

  • Google

Why it's here

gRPC became the default RPC layer for cloud-native microservicesAn architecture splitting applications into small independent services — each deployed and scaled separately. after Google's release.

Why it mattered

It standardized efficient service-to-service communication with schema-first contracts.

What it solved

RESTRepresentational State Transfer — a style for web APIs using HTTP methods and resource URLs. JSONJavaScript Object Notation — a lightweight text format for structured data exchange on the web. over HTTPHyperText Transfer Protocol — the protocol browsers use to request and receive web pages./1.1 was verbose and slow for internal microservice meshes.

Media

  • Google Cloud Platform
    ImageGoogle Cloud Platform

    Google, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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