A service mesh is used for managing the communication between microservices in a distributed application. It provides features like traffic management, service discovery, load balancing, failure recovery, security, and observability. These capabilities help ensure reliable and secure communication between services.
In Kubernetes, a service mesh is needed to handle the complex communication patterns between microservices. Kubernetes orchestrates the deployment and scaling of containerized applications, but it does not inherently provide the sophisticated networking features that a service mesh offers. A service mesh helps manage the dynamic nature of microservices deployed in Kubernetes by providing consistent communication policies and enhanced security.
The difference between a microservice and a mesh lies in their roles and functionalities. A microservice is a small, independent service that performs a specific business function within an application. A service mesh, on the other hand, is an infrastructure layer that manages the communication between these microservices, providing features like traffic control, security, and observability.
An API mesh and a service mesh both manage communication, but they focus on different aspects. An API mesh is primarily concerned with managing external API calls and providing a unified interface for external clients. It deals with API versioning, routing, and security for external APIs. A service mesh, however, focuses on managing internal service-to-service communication within a microservices architecture, offering traffic management, security, and observability for internal interactions.
A mesh is needed to address the challenges of managing microservices at scale. As the number of microservices grows, the complexity of managing their interactions increases. A service mesh provides a centralized and consistent way to handle communication, security, and observability, reducing the operational burden and improving the reliability and performance of the application.