MCP Integration Readiness

Current State: Stateful Protocol Limitations

The MCP protocol is stateful to support several key use cases:

• Notifications about changes: Changes to resources, or tools being added/removed
• Server-initiated sampling: Enables agentic workflows at any point during the session

Enterprise Integration Challenges

The stateful nature of the protocol creates significant challenges for enterprise deployment:

• Serverless Incompatibility: MCP servers cannot be deployed in serverless environments due to the requirement for long-lived sessions
• Scalability Concerns: Traditional horizontal scaling approaches are limited by session state requirements
• Infrastructure Complexity: Requires persistent connection management and state maintenance

Future Direction: Streamable HTTP Transport

Proposed Solution

An effort is underway to introduce a Streamable HTTP transport as an alternative to Server-Sent Events (SSE). This approach would:

• Replace the current HTTP+SSE implementation that requires long-lived connections
• Implement HTTP as the transport layer after a protocol feature negotiation phase between client and server
• Enable fallback to regular HTTP for clients that don't require agentic workflows and only need simple tool calling

Technical Implementation

The proposed changes are detailed in: [RFC] Replace HTTP+SSE with new "Streamable HTTP" transport

Enterprise Benefits

This enhancement will provide significant advantages for enterprise adoption:

• Easier Integration: Simplified deployment and hosting requirements
• Improved Scalability: Better alignment with modern cloud infrastructure patterns
• Reduced Complexity: Less infrastructure overhead for maintaining persistent connections
• Serverless Compatibility: Potential support for serverless deployment models

Integration Readiness Assessment

Aspect	Current State	Future State (Streamable HTTP)
Deployment Model	Requires persistent servers	Supports serverless and traditional hosting
Scalability	Limited by session state	Horizontally scalable
Enterprise Adoption	Complex infrastructure requirements	Simplified deployment
Transport Options	HTTP+SSE only	HTTP+SSE + Streamable HTTP
Use Case Support	Full agentic workflows	Configurable based on client needs

Recommendations

For Current Implementation

• Plan for persistent server infrastructure
• Implement proper session management
• Consider load balancing with session affinity

For Future Planning

• Monitor the Streamable HTTP transport development
• Prepare migration strategies for when the new transport becomes available
• Design applications with transport abstraction to enable easy migration

Next Steps

1. Stay Updated: Monitor the RFC progress and community discussions
2. Prototype: Begin prototyping with current MCP implementation while planning for future transport options
3. Architecture Planning: Design systems that can adapt to both current and future transport mechanisms