# When does the A2A protocol actually matter?

DevFeed: [When does the A2A protocol actually matter?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/when-does-the-a2a-protocol-actually-matter-4863.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://redis.io/blog/when-does-a2a-protocol-matter/>)

Author: Jeff Mills

Published: 2026-08-04T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Redis Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/redis-blog.md>)

Topics: [Protocol (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/protocol.md>), [Model Context Protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/model-context-protocol.md>), [Remote Procedure Call (RPC)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rpc.md>), [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [JSON](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/json.md>), [Authentication](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/authentication.md>), [Web](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web.md>)

Tags: [authentication](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/authentication.md>), [http](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/http.md>), [json](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/json.md>), [mcp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mcp.md>), [model-context-protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/model-context-protocol.md>), [rpc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rpc.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server.md>), [tech-de](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech-de.md>)

## AI overview

A2A is an open standard for communication between independently deployed agents, particularly when they are owned by different teams or vendors. The article presents an ownership test for deciding whether A2A is needed, explains its security model and core primitives, and contrasts it with MCP.

## Source excerpt

If you're building multi-agent systems, someone has probably asked whether you're "doing A2A yet," with the implication that you should be. When teams actually reach for it, most can't say why they need A2A over MCP. A more useful question: do your ag...