Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Why It Matters — RedStem Executive Perspective
Executive Summary
Beyond model quality, one of the most important reasons RedStem recommends Anthropic Claude is Anthropic's leadership in the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
MCP is an open standard that defines how AI systems safely connect to business context—systems, data, and tools—without fragile integrations or vendor lock-in.
Anthropic proposed MCP and currently offers the most production-ready support for MCP servers, giving Claude a meaningful advantage in real-world business deployments.
The Business Problem MCP Solves
Most AI platforms struggle to move beyond chat.
Organizations are often forced to rely on:
- Custom plugins
- Ad-hoc integrations
- One-off integrations
- Tight coupling between AI and internal systems
These approaches tend to be:
- Brittle
- Hard to govern
- Difficult to scale
- Expensive to maintain
RedStem view: This integration layer—not the model—is where AI initiatives most often fail.
What MCP Is
Business View
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides a clean, standardized way for AI systems to access business context through a controlled intermediary.
Think of MCP as a secure bridge between:
- AI models
- Your business data, systems, and workflows
Rather than embedding access logic directly into the AI or relying on opaque plugins, MCP creates a clear separation of responsibilities.
Why This Matters for Executives
MCP enables organizations to:
- Keep business systems insulated from AI experimentation
- Standardize how AI accesses context across use cases
- Reduce integration risk as models evolve
- Scale AI capabilities without rebuilding foundations
RedStem view: MCP turns AI from a collection of demos into a durable business capability.
Anthropic's Leadership in MCP
While multiple vendors have since aligned with MCP, it is important to understand who is leading in practice.
Anthropic:
- Proposed and authored the MCP standard
- Designed Claude to work natively with MCP concepts
- Delivers the most mature, production-ready support for MCP servers today
This leadership shows up not in marketing claims, but in how smoothly Claude integrates into real business environments.
Future-Proofing Your AI Strategy
AI models will change.
What should not change is how your organization:
- Connects AI to business systems
- Governs access to data
- Scales from pilot to production
Because MCP is:
- Open
- Vendor-neutral
- Designed around separation and control
…it allows organizations to adopt new models over time without rewriting their integration strategy.
RedStem Perspective
RedStem recommends Anthropic Claude not just for what the model can do today, but for how it fits into a long-term, low-risk AI architecture.
MCP is a critical part of that architecture.
It reflects a philosophy we strongly align with:
AI should adapt to the business—not force the business to adapt to AI.
Bottom Line
Claude's advantage is not just intelligence.
It is how safely, cleanly, and future-ready it connects to the systems that actually run your business.
That is why MCP—and Anthropic's leadership in it—matters.