In September 2022, Google and Solo.io have contributed Istio Ambient Mesh to the community.

With this new mode, it's now optional to use sidecars. Users can get the benefits of Istio (observability, security, L7 policies, ...) without the operational complexity and overhead of sidecars.

This new mode has introduced 2 new components:

1. A node-level proxy called a zero-trust tunnel provides mTLS and L4 capabilities.
2. A service account level proxy called waypoint provides L7 capabilities.

Let's talk about them.