Cilium Service Mesh
eBPF-based Networking, Observability, and Security.
Overview
Cilium is a cloud-native solution for providing, securing, and observing network connectivity between container workloads. While it is known for its eBPF-based dataplane, it also offers service mesh capabilities, either with or without sidecars, using Envoy as the proxy. This provides L7 traffic management, security, and observability.
✨ Key Features
- eBPF-based Dataplane for high performance
- Sidecar-less or sidecar-based service mesh
- API-aware security
- Deep Observability with Hubble
- Multi-cluster connectivity
🎯 Key Differentiators
- eBPF-based data plane for high performance and low overhead
- Option for sidecar-less service mesh
- Integrated network policy and service mesh capabilities
Unique Value: Provides high-performance networking, observability, and security using eBPF, with an integrated service mesh.
🎯 Use Cases (4)
✅ Best For
- Large-scale Kubernetes clusters where network performance is critical.
💡 Check With Vendor
Verify these considerations match your specific requirements:
- Non-Kubernetes environments.
- Users unfamiliar with eBPF concepts.
🏆 Alternatives
Offers significant performance advantages and the potential for lower resource consumption (via sidecar-less mode) compared to traditional sidecar-based service meshes.
💻 Platforms
✅ Offline Mode Available
🔌 Integrations
💰 Pricing
Free tier: Open source, self-hosted.
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