Protocol Buffers
Protocol Buffers (protobuf) is a language-neutral, platform-neutral extensible mechanism for serializing structured data, developed by Google. It uses a schema definition language to define data structures, which are then compiled into code for various programming languages to efficiently serialize and deserialize data. It is designed to be smaller, faster, and simpler than alternatives like XML or JSON for data interchange in distributed systems.
Developers should use Protocol Buffers when building high-performance, scalable systems that require efficient data serialization, such as microservices, gRPC APIs, or distributed databases, as it reduces payload size and improves parsing speed. It is particularly valuable in environments with strict performance requirements, like real-time applications or large-scale data processing, where minimizing latency and bandwidth usage is critical.