Serialization Protocols in Scala: a Shootout

Decoupled applications exchange messages – between JVMs, over the network or via messaging systems like Kafka, Pub/Sub and Kinesis. Therefore, messages are everywhere – sometimes they live for milliseconds, sometimes they get persisted for years. When the types of these messages start to evolve and the applications change at different speed, things get complicated: serialization protocols can help us with that! In this talk we will compare the current biggest players of the serialization world: Protocol Buffers (Protobuf), Avro, Thrift and Kryo.


Target Audience: Architects, Developers,
Prerequisites: Basic Knowledge in Scala
Level: Practicing

Extended Abstract
We’ll see how integration in the Scala and sbt ecosystem works, what schema evolution is and how we deal with it and only a brief bit about performance. Bonus points are awarded for portability to other platforms, maturity and community activity. Afterwards you’ll have a solid base to decide which serialization framework is the right one for you. Expect lots of code samples!