MESH UP YOUR APPS
A “mesh” of highly accessible, secure, and agile application services that are ultra-easy to connect with and combine, both inside and outside the organization
As a Technology Business becomes so much more agile, more connected, more accessible, more networked – so too do its application services. Or, might it even be the other way around, every now and then? In any case, say hello to the Service Mesh: unlocking the power of born-in-the-cloud applications, as a lively beehive of constantly evolving, changing, and “chatting” microservices. All driven by standards, and a rock-solid, secure, and scalable platform that manages and monitors the ongoing dynamics. That way, the beehive keeps buzzing with a purpose, rather than becoming a swarm gone rogue. The microservices are managed and provided as first-class products, increasingly by the business units or domains that are closest to its subject matter. It’s the API Economy, but in overdrive, opening new, agile ways of collaboration inside and outside the organization. Join the party, dance this mesh around!
Sjoukje Zaal Expert in Residence
WHAT
- APIs provide the building blocks for developers to compose and enrich their application, leveraging data from multiple sources. As more and more companies open their data sources using APIs, the need to build bespoke services is reduced.
- APIs can be built on top of existing applications to provide more flexible access; new applications typically come by default with a set of accompanying APIs.
- A service mesh is a platform layer on top of the infrastructure layer that enables managed, observable, and secure communication via APIs between individual services, both internally and externally.
- The service mesh’s implementation is an array of lightweight network “proxies” deployed alongside microservices, without applications ever needing to be aware.
- A service mesh enables users to create canary rollouts to first deploy a small subset of applications for testing and create blue/green rollouts to reduce downtime and risk by running two identical production environments.
USE
- To help modernize its student loans service, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) used Capgemini’s Regenerate to migrate their platform to structured Java, shortly followed by a deployment onto a private cloud environment. HMRC modernized their IT service using a cost-effective approach, removing their dependency on legacy software.
- A US-based grocery retailer with more than 420 stores, experienced a sudden increase in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing a reinvention of its fulfillment systems to meet demand and prioritize the safety of customers, choosing Linkerd as their Service Mesh to support their critical workloads and operating environment.
- eBay implemented a centralized cloud platform using Kubernetes – using Istio as a Service Mesh – to meet their high availability requirements across the different data centers.
- Service New South Wales (NSW) adopted Salesforce and MuleSoft as the agency’s front end and leveraged APIs to expose data from disparate systems across the NSW government in a scalable manner. Citizens now experience a one-stop-shop, omnichannel access to approximately 800 different services, resulting in a 97% customer satisfaction rating from more than two million citizens.
IMPACT
- Simplify the cloud-native and microservices-based application portfolio, and provide flexible access to existing and new application services for both business and IT.
- Monetize and enrich application services through the publication of APIs to customers, partners, and external developers.
- Leverage internal and external API catalogs for ready-to-use application functionality.
- Split the business logic, networking and security policies from any application using a service mesh, to connect, scale, secure, and monitor your microservices.
- Provide effective transparency and improved security for complicated service-to-service interactions.
TECH
- Dedicated Service Mesh platforms: Istio, Linkerd, Consul Connect, Apache Mesos, Kuma, Maesh, ServiceComb-mesher, Network Service Mesh (NSM), AWS App Mesh, OpenShift Service Mesh by Red Hat
- Dedicated API management platforms: Mulesoft, Dell Boomi, Microsoft Azure API Management, Oracle API Platform, WSO2, Kong, Tyk, Apigee, IBM API Connect, API management, AWS API Gateway
- API management open standards: The Open API Initiative
- API marketplaces: Programmable Web, AWS Marketplace