Service Mesh Products

Service meshes are an infrastructure layer within an application or system that uses the Kubernetes container management platform. They allow microservices to communicate with each other within the application itself. Service meshes have emerged in response to a particular pain point for Kubernetes. Specifically, Kubernetes originally requires microservices to communicate outside of the application itself to interact with each other. Service Meshes provide the connective communications tissue between microservices to keep these communications and data internal.

The service mesh infrastructure layer resides as “sidecars” next to each microservice. This configuration leads each microservice to communicate with the service mesh, which then handles the communications direction and load balancing between microservices. This abstracts the communications process out of the microservices code itself. Service meshes can be built into applications during development, or layered on top of existing Kubernetes-based systems.

Service meshes were initially created as open source platforms to resolve a functional pain point for developers. These open source options are still quite popular. However, technology providers have recently begun building their own proprietary service meshes. Others are building on top of open source technology to offer more prebuilt features and capabilities.

The primary benefits of service meshes are efficiency and security. Applications can run more efficiently by keeping communications within the application itself. They also centralize the related communications management functions, such as load balancing and observability, within the native infrastructure, rather than layering additional systems and agents. Service meshes also allow developers to build more quickly. The infrastructure frees developers from worrying about inter-microservice concerns when building new features and capabilities into applications, such as importing/exporting environment variables. Service meshes also provide more security, since communications and data stay within the application. This effectively reduces the applications’ attack surface.

What are Service Mesh Products?

Service meshes are an infrastructure layer within an application or system that uses the Kubernetes container management platform. They allow microservices to communicate with each other within the application itself. Service meshes have emerged in response to a particular pain point for Kubernetes. Specifically, Kubernetes originally requires microservices to communicate outside of the application itself to interact with each other. Service Meshes provide the connective communications tissue between microservices to keep these communications and data internal.

The service mesh infrastructure layer resides as “sidecars” next to each microservice. This configuration leads each microservice to communicate with the service mesh, which then handles the communications direction and load balancing between microservices. This abstracts the communications process out of the microservices code itself. Service meshes can be built into applications during development, or layered on top of existing Kubernetes-based systems.

Service meshes were initially created as open source platforms to resolve a functional pain point for developers. These open source options are still quite popular. However, technology providers have recently begun building their own proprietary service meshes. Others are building on top of open source technology to offer more prebuilt features and capabilities.

The primary benefits of service meshes are efficiency and security. Applications can run more efficiently by keeping communications within the application itself. They also centralize the related communications management functions, such as load balancing and observability, within the native infrastructure, rather than layering additional systems and agents. Service meshes also allow developers to build more quickly. The infrastructure frees developers from worrying about inter-microservice concerns when building new features and capabilities into applications, such as importing/exporting environment variables. Service meshes also provide more security, since communications and data stay within the application. This effectively reduces the applications’ attack surface.

Service Mesh Products Comparison

Service meshes are still an emerging category. However, there are some factors to consider when comparing options:

• Open Source, Free, or Paid Offerings: The 3 licensing models will each come with tradeoffs for buyers. Open source service meshes will give developers the most flexibility, but will lack the support and prebuilt offerings of other options. Leveraging vendors’ free service meshes can come with more prebuilt capabilities, but less configuration. Paid offerings come with a price tag, but will also offer more support and implementation services.

• Vendor-Specific vs. Vendor-Agnostic: Can each service mesh interface with environments regardless of vendor? Or does it only integrate well with products from the same vendor? Consider the vendors in the business’s existing tech stack, and whether the primary provider also offers a service mesh. The native integration can be highly beneficial in some cases.

• Standalone Product vs. Suite Offering: Is each service mesh purchasable on its own, or is it part of a larger container management solution? Vendors will vary in how they offer these products. Vendors with more of an API background are more likely to offer the solution standalone, while container managers are likely to offer a service mesh as an enhancement for its other offerings.

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Pricing Information

Service meshes are often free to use. However, in many cases they will need other technologies from the vendor to work effectively and efficiently within the container environments. For free or open source options, there are often paid support and implementation offerings that may be worthwhile for many organizations. Enterprise-scale SM are more likely to be paid, with tailored pricing available by quote from the vendor.