MCP Server: The Protocol Changing Everything for AI Tool Integration

The problem MCP solves

Imagine a head chef who had to learn a new language for every supplier they work with. That was exactly the situation for LLMs before MCP: every integration with an external tool required a bespoke connector, a specific adaptation layer, dedicated maintenance.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP), launched by Anthropic in November 2024, solves this elegantly. It is a standardised protocol defining how LLMs communicate with external tools and data sources.

MCP architecture in 3 components

1. The MCP Host

The application hosting the LLM and orchestrating connections: Claude Desktop, Cursor, your custom application. The Host manages connection lifecycles and controls access permissions.

2. The MCP Client

Embedded in the Host, the Client maintains connections with MCP servers and translates LLM requests into standardised MCP calls.

3. The MCP Server

A lightweight process exposing tools (functions the LLM can call), resources (data the LLM can read) and prompts (reusable templates). An MCP Server can connect: a database, a REST API, a file system, a cloud service.

Why this is revolutionary

"MCP does for LLMs what USB did for peripherals: a single standard that eliminates fragmentation and enables reuse."

Before MCP, every team wanting to connect Claude to their Jira had to develop a custom integration. With MCP, just install the MCP Jira server (open source, available on GitHub) and Claude can immediately read tickets, create comments, modify statuses.

The MCP ecosystem in 2025

• 200+ official MCP servers: GitHub, Slack, Google Drive, PostgreSQL, Notion, Jira, Salesforce...
• Native support in Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, Continue
• SDKs available in Python, TypeScript, Java, Rust
• Security framework: granular permissions, process isolation

Use cases for Swiss IT teams

The potential is immediate for project teams: connect Claude to your Jira, Confluence and Slack via MCP, and you have an assistant that can read your tickets, create documentation, post updates — all while understanding your project's full context.