An In-Depth Look at Istio Ambient Mode with Calico

The Next Step Toward a Unified Kubernetes Platform: Istio Ambient Mode The Tigera Unified Strategy: Addressing Fragmentation What is a Service Mesh What is Istio Ambient Mode? Why Istio Ambient Mode? Solving the Sidecar Problem Istio Ambient Mode in Detail mTLS Everywhere by Default How Calico + Istio Ambient Mode Leverage mTLS Seamless use of Istio and Calico Policies Together Traffic Control Using Istio Ambient Mode Istio’s Waypoint Proxy: Enabling L7 Control Routing and Traffic Shaping Resilience and Reliability Features Safe Production Deployment Controls Identity-Aware Authorization Application (L7) Observability A Unified, Operator-Managed Architecture How to Get Started with Istio Ambient Mode 1. Enable Istio Ambient Mode with the Tigera Operator 2. Add Workloads to the Ambient Mesh 3. mTLS Authentication and Encryption 4. Combine Calico and Istio Network Policies Seamlessly A Simpler, More Secure, More Scalable Platform Organizations are struggling with rising operational complexity, fragmented tools, and inconsistent security enforcement as Kubernetes becomes the foundation for modern application platforms. As a result of this complexity and fragmentation, platform teams are increasingly burdened by the need to stitch together separate solutions for networking, network security, and observability. This fragmentation also creates higher operating costs, security gaps, inefficient troubleshooting, and an elevated risk of outages in mission-critical environments. The challenge is even greater for companies running multiple Kubernetes distributions, as relying on each platform’s unique and often incompatible networking stack can lead to significant vendor lock-in and operational overhead. Tigera’s unified platform strategy is designed to address these challenges by providing a single solution that brings together all the essential Kubernetes networking and security capabilities enterprises need, that includes Istio Ambient Mode, delivered consistently across every Kubernetes distribution. Istio Ambient Mode brings sidecarless service-mesh functionality that includes authentication, authorization, encryption, L4/L7 traffic controls, and deep application-level (L7) observability directly into the unified Calico platform. By including Istio Ambient Mode with Calico and making it easy to install and manage with the Tigera Operator and including enterprise support, Tigera is giving customers a simpler, more scalable, and more secure way to achieve secure networking across their Kubernetes environments. The result is reduced operational strain, lower costs, and a single consistent platform for networking, network security, and observability across every cluster.