Selecting agentic protocols

For most organizations building production agent systems, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) offers the most comprehensive and well-supported foundation for agent-to-agent communication. MCP benefits from active development contributions from AWS and the open-source community.

Selecting the right agentic protocols is important for organizations looking to implement agentic AI effectively. Considerations differ based on organizational context.

Enterprise protocol considerations

Enterprises should consider the following actions:

• Prioritize open protocols like MCP for strategic, long-term agent implementations.

• Implement abstraction layers when using proprietary protocols to ease future migrations.

• Participate in standards development to influence protocol evolution.

• Consider hybrid approaches that use open protocols for core infrastructure and proprietary protocols for specific use cases.

Startup and SMB protocol considerations

Startups and small-to-medium (SMB) businesses should consider the following actions:

• Balance speed and flexibility by starting with well-supported proprietary protocols for rapid development.

• Plan migration paths to use more open standards as your needs mature.

• Evaluate protocol adoption trends to avoid investing in declining standards.

• Consider managed services that abstract protocol complexity.

Government and regulated industry protocol considerations

Government and regulated industries should consider the following actions:

• Emphasize open standards to ensure long-term access and avoid vendor lock-in.

• Prioritize protocols with strong security models and authentication mechanisms.

• Consider data sovereignty implications of remote and local deployment models.

• Document protocol decisions for compliance and governance requirements.