Microsoft wants to make service mesh invisible

At KubeCon EU 2026, Mitch Connors of Microsoft outlined a vision to make service meshes effectively invisible to users. Now working on Azure Kubernetes Application Network, a fully managed service built on Istio’s ambient mode, Connors aims to deliver core capabilities like mTLS without requiring users to engage with the complexity traditionally associated with service meshes. Ambient mode eliminates sidecar upgrade challenges by shifting functionality to node-level and waypoint proxies, though adoption still faces hurdles, including lagging CVE patching. Connors emphasized that AI workloads are reshaping network demands, as request variability in large language models requires smarter routing and resource management. Istio is addressing this through a two-speed model: stable APIs for reliability and experimental integrations like Agent Gateway for emerging AI protocols. Features such as inference-aware routing and policy enforcement for approved LLM endpoints highlight the mesh’s growing role in AI governance. With multi-cluster support and GPU scarcity driving workload mobility, Microsoft’s approach bets that simplifying and abstracting the mesh will broaden adoption while meeting the evolving needs of AI-driven systems. Learn more from The New Stack about service meshes: The Hidden Costs of Service Meshes All the Things a Service Mesh Can Do Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

You can listen to Microsoft wants to make service mesh invisible online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Microsoft wants to make service mesh invisible is an episode from The New Stack Podcast by The New Stack Podcast.

This episode is 00:21:21 long.

This episode was published on Apr 8, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The New Stack Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.