Envoy Proxy is an open-source edge and service proxy, designed for cloud-native applications. It is a high-performance, programmable, and extensible network proxy that is primarily used in service mesh deployments. Envoy Proxy is a crucial component in the modern cloud computing landscape, offering a wide range of features and capabilities that are designed to handle the complex requirements of modern, distributed, and microservice-based architectures.
This glossary entry aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of Envoy Proxy, its role in cloud computing, its history, use cases, and specific examples. It is written with software engineers in mind, focusing on the technical aspects of Envoy Proxy and its application in real-world scenarios.
Definition of Envoy Proxy
Envoy Proxy is a modern, high-performance, open-source network proxy that is designed to be used in distributed systems. It is a self-contained process that mediates all network communication for an application, effectively acting as a "middleman" between the application and the external world. Envoy Proxy is often used as a service proxy in service mesh architectures, providing a uniform way to connect, secure, control, and observe services.
Envoy Proxy is built to be extensible and programmable, allowing developers to customize its behavior and extend its functionality. It supports a wide range of protocols, including HTTP/2, gRPC, and TCP, and provides advanced features such as load balancing, service discovery, health checking, and more.
Key Features of Envoy Proxy
Envoy Proxy offers a wide range of features that are designed to handle the complex requirements of modern, distributed systems. These include support for multiple protocols, advanced load balancing, dynamic service discovery, active and passive health checking, circuit breaking, rate limiting, and more. Envoy Proxy also provides robust observability capabilities, including detailed metrics, logging, and tracing, which are crucial for monitoring and troubleshooting distributed systems.
Another key feature of Envoy Proxy is its extensibility. Envoy Proxy is built on a modular architecture, allowing developers to add new features and functionality through plugins. This extensibility makes Envoy Proxy a versatile tool that can be adapted to a wide range of use cases and environments.
History of Envoy Proxy
Envoy Proxy was originally developed by Lyft, a ride-sharing company, to handle their increasingly complex and distributed system architecture. Lyft open-sourced Envoy Proxy in 2016, and it quickly gained popularity in the cloud-native community due to its advanced features and capabilities.
In 2017, Envoy Proxy was accepted into the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a non-profit organization that promotes and supports open-source projects in the cloud-native ecosystem. Since then, Envoy Proxy has been adopted by a wide range of companies and projects, including Istio, a popular service mesh platform, and has become a key component in the modern cloud computing landscape.
Contributions to the Cloud Native Ecosystem
Since its inception, Envoy Proxy has made significant contributions to the cloud-native ecosystem. It has played a pivotal role in the development and popularization of the service mesh architecture, a pattern that provides a uniform way to connect, secure, control, and observe services in a distributed system.
Envoy Proxy's advanced features and capabilities, such as its support for multiple protocols, advanced load balancing, dynamic service discovery, and robust observability capabilities, have made it a popular choice for service mesh deployments. Its extensibility and programmability have also made it a versatile tool that can be adapted to a wide range of use cases and environments.
Use Cases of Envoy Proxy
Envoy Proxy is used in a wide range of scenarios, from small-scale applications to large-scale distributed systems. Some of the most common use cases include service mesh deployments, API gateways, edge proxies, and more. In all these scenarios, Envoy Proxy provides a uniform way to connect, secure, control, and observe services, while also offering advanced features such as load balancing, service discovery, health checking, and more.
One of the most common use cases of Envoy Proxy is in service mesh deployments. In a service mesh, Envoy Proxy is used as a service proxy, mediating all network communication between services. This allows developers to abstract away the complexities of network communication, focusing instead on the business logic of their applications.
Service Mesh Deployments
In a service mesh deployment, Envoy Proxy is used as a service proxy, mediating all network communication between services. This allows developers to abstract away the complexities of network communication, focusing instead on the business logic of their applications. Envoy Proxy provides a uniform way to connect, secure, control, and observe services, offering advanced features such as load balancing, service discovery, health checking, and more.
Envoy Proxy's extensibility and programmability make it a versatile tool in service mesh deployments. Developers can customize Envoy Proxy's behavior and extend its functionality to suit their specific needs. This makes Envoy Proxy a powerful tool for building and managing complex, distributed systems.
API Gateways
Envoy Proxy is also commonly used as an API gateway, a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. As an API gateway, Envoy Proxy provides a single, unified interface to a group of microservices, abstracting the complexity of the underlying services from the client. This allows developers to manage and control the interaction between clients and services, providing features such as rate limiting, authentication, and more.
Envoy Proxy's support for multiple protocols, advanced load balancing, and robust observability capabilities make it a powerful tool for API gateway deployments. Its extensibility and programmability also allow developers to customize its behavior and extend its functionality to suit their specific needs.
Examples of Envoy Proxy
Envoy Proxy is used by a wide range of companies and projects, from small startups to large enterprises. Some notable examples include Lyft, the company that originally developed Envoy Proxy, and Istio, a popular service mesh platform.
Lyft uses Envoy Proxy to handle their increasingly complex and distributed system architecture. Envoy Proxy provides a uniform way to connect, secure, control, and observe services, allowing Lyft to manage and control their system effectively and efficiently.
Lyft's Use of Envoy Proxy
Lyft, the company that originally developed Envoy Proxy, uses it extensively in their system architecture. Lyft's system is highly distributed, with hundreds of microservices running in multiple data centers. Managing and controlling this complex system is a significant challenge, and Envoy Proxy plays a crucial role in this task.
Envoy Proxy provides a uniform way to connect, secure, control, and observe services in Lyft's system. It offers advanced features such as load balancing, service discovery, health checking, and more, allowing Lyft to manage and control their system effectively and efficiently. Envoy Proxy's extensibility and programmability also allow Lyft to customize its behavior and extend its functionality to suit their specific needs.
Istio's Use of Envoy Proxy
Istio, a popular service mesh platform, uses Envoy Proxy as its default service proxy. Istio leverages Envoy Proxy's advanced features and capabilities to provide a uniform way to connect, secure, control, and observe services in a service mesh.
Envoy Proxy provides Istio with advanced features such as load balancing, service discovery, health checking, and more. Its extensibility and programmability also allow Istio to customize Envoy Proxy's behavior and extend its functionality to suit their specific needs. This makes Envoy Proxy a crucial component in Istio's service mesh platform.
Conclusion
Envoy Proxy is a crucial component in the modern cloud computing landscape, offering a wide range of features and capabilities that are designed to handle the complex requirements of modern, distributed, and microservice-based architectures. Its advanced features, extensibility, and programmability make it a versatile tool that can be adapted to a wide range of use cases and environments.
Whether you're a software engineer working on a small-scale application or a large-scale distributed system, understanding Envoy Proxy and its role in cloud computing is crucial. This glossary entry provides a comprehensive understanding of Envoy Proxy, its history, use cases, and specific examples, helping you to understand and leverage this powerful tool in your own projects.