What is it?

Homa is a high-speed transport protocol that was designed to challenge TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which is the most widely used network transport protocol on the internet. Homa is optimized for datacenter environments, where it can provide significantly lower latencies and higher throughput compared to TCP.

Is this experimental at this point in time?

Yes - Homa can be considered an experimental protocol at this point. It was developed by researchers at Stanford University and Google, and while it has shown promising results in some initial studies, it has not yet been widely adopted or extensively tested in real-world environments. As a result, it is still considered to be a work in progress, and its practical applications and limitations are not yet fully understood.

So then, who cares?

As a Backend DevOps/Engineer, Homa could potentially affect your work in a few ways. First, if you are working on a system that involves high-speed data transfer within a datacenter, then using Homa instead of TCP could potentially improve the performance of your system. Additionally, if you are involved in the design or implementation of network protocols, then Homa could serve as an interesting point of comparison or inspiration for your work. However, it's important to note that Homa is still a relatively new and experimental protocol, so its practical applications and limitations are not yet fully understood.