Executive Summary

The transition to service-based models driving industry advancement has inadvertently led to increased complexity in service management, networking, and security… problems only a service mesh can solve. Istio is currently the industry-leading open-source service mesh and relies on an Envoy proxy to support it.

We will address the what, why, and how of an Istio—and Envoy-based service mesh. This paper will introduce you to:

• • • Why a service mesh is encouraged in service-based models
    • The basics of its architecture
    • An overview of features an Istio service mesh can provide
    • What the service mesh is not going to fix

By the end, you should have a firm understanding of what an Istio service mesh is and how it works.

Zack Butcher
Core Engineer, Istio, Tetrate