Definition
gRPC is a modern, lightweight open-source remote procedure protocol initially developed by Google. It is a technology for implementing RPC APIs. gRPC is used to connect services in and across data centers with pluggable support for authentication, load balancing, tracing, and health checks. It uses HTTP 2.0 as its underlying transport protocol.
It enables highly effective use of network resources. Most common usage scenarios include connecting services in microservices style architecture and connect mobile devices, browser clients to backend services.
gRPC uses Protocol buffers (Protobuf) as interface definition language (IDL). This allows to define interfaces in a language-independent way. Protocol buffers are also used as a message exchange format to define message structures.
gRPC is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project.
Acronym
grpc remote procedure call