Introducing Calico AI and Istio Ambient Mode

The Complexity of Modern Kubernetes Networking Introducing Istio Ambient Mode in Calico Deep Dive: What is Istio Ambient Mode for Calico? Key Features and Benefits Calico AI: Achieving Operational Simplicity Deep Dive: What Is the Calico AI Assistant? How It Works Key Features and Capabilities Benefits of Calico AI Assistant Availability Intelligent and Unified Security for Kubernetes The Calico Advantage Next Steps: See Calico in Action 👇 Kubernetes has transformed how teams build and scale applications, but it has also introduced new layers of complexity. Platform and DevOps teams must now integrate and manage multiple technologies: CNI, ingress and egress gateways, service mesh, and more across increasingly large and dynamic environments. As more applications are deployed into Kubernetes clusters, the operational burden on these teams continues to grow, especially when maintaining performance, reliability, security, and observability across diverse workloads. To address this complexity and tool sprawl, Tigera is incorporating Istio’s Ambient Service Mesh directly into the Calico Unified Network Security Platform. Service mesh has become the preferred solution for application-level networking, particularly in environments with a large number of services or highly regulated workloads. Among available service meshes, Istio stands out as the most popular and widely adopted, supported by a thriving open-source community. By leveraging the lightweight, sidecarless design of Istio Ambient Mode, Calico delivers all the benefits of service mesh, secure service-to-service communication, mTLS authentication, L7 traffic management, and observability, without the burden of sidecars. Complementing this addition is Calico AI. Calico AI brings intelligence and automation to Kubernetes networking. It addresses the massive operational burden on teams by allowing them to interrogate complex network data and configurations using simple, natural language. It empowers teams to troubleshoot faster, detect anomalies, and optimize configurations using natural language prompts. Together, Calico AI and Istio Ambient Mode will help Kubernetes teams streamline operations, unify their toolchains, and manage complex Kubernetes environments with greater efficiency and confidence.