About Istio
Istio is an open source service mesh for Kubernetes and other workloads. It adds traffic control, security and telemetry between services without changing application code.
What it does
Istio places proxies beside your services and manages the traffic between them. It handles mutual TLS for encryption and authentication between services, routes and balances traffic, and collects metrics and traces. You can run it with sidecar proxies, or use ambient mode, which does not need a sidecar in every pod.
Key features
- Mutual TLS between services
- Traffic routing and reliability controls
- Metrics, traces and service telemetry
- Ambient mode without sidecar proxies
- Envoy proxies for Layer 7 features
Who it's for
Platform and operations teams that run many services on Kubernetes and want consistent networking and security rules across all of them.
Pricing and good to know
Istio is free and released under the Apache License 2.0, and it is a CNCF graduated project. Several providers and consultants offer installs or managed versions, and major cloud platforms offer one-click installs. It needs a Kubernetes cluster to run in.
Highlights
- Encrypt and authenticate traffic with mutual TLS
- Route and balance traffic between services
- Collect metrics and traces for services
- Run in ambient mode without sidecars
- Use Envoy proxies for Layer 7 features
