Get an overview of gRPC and how it compares to REST over HTTP, then get started using Quarkus to implement and consume gRPC services.

gRPC is an open source  remote procedure call (RPC) framework. It was released by Google in 2015 and is now an incubating project within the  Cloud Native Computing Foundation. This post introduces gRPC while explaining its underlying architecture and how it compares to  REST over HTTP. You’ll also get started using  Quarkus to implement and consume gRPC services.

Remote Method Calling in gRPC

Wait, what’s this? Did you say remote method calling? Isn’t that something we did in the ‘90s with things like  CORBA,  RMI, and XML-RPC/ SOAP?

Well, from a conceptual standpoint, yes. The question is, “How do those older technologies relate to a modern framework like gRPC?”

gRPC is similar to CORBA and RMI in that they require generating and using client and server bindings. This, however, is really where the similarities end. The underlying transport mechanisms used and the tooling available for use in today’s technology frameworks are the main differences.

gRPC uses  HTTP/2 for transport and  protocol buffers as both its Interface Definition Language (IDL) and as its underlying message interchange format. In addition, tooling is built-into the framework for generating cross-platform client and server bindings for many languages and frameworks.

#java #microservices #kubernetes #quarkus #grpc