Linkerd & Envoy - which one to use

Question

I'm looking for API Gateway to manage the multicloud api. I have read about multiple products and thinking to use following:

1. Envoy
2. Linkerd

As per my understanding, envoy is a proxy which can be used as API Gateway.
Linkerd is a service mesh which can provide other features like observability but can we use it as API Gateway as well? Or I can use envoy on front as API Gateway and use linkerd as service mess.

Thanks,

Answer 1

While both Envoy and Linkerd can be leveraged for managing APIs in a multi-cloud environment, their functionalities differ considerably. Envoy functions predominantly as a high-performance proxy that serves as an API gateway by facilitating traffic splitting, observability, routing, load balancing and other features.

It is usually used as a data plane feature for service meshes like Istio to provide additional control plane features.

Linkerd is a service mesh that places emphasis on augmenting the dependability, safety and observability of dispersed services. Using its lightweight data plane component, Linkerd2-proxy, the service mesh solution enhances observability, security and reliability features within the microservices environment.

Despite not being primarily created to function as an API Gateway, Linkerd offers similar gateway capabilities such as routing, TLS termination and load balancing. Combining Envoy as an API Gateway to manage ingress traffic with Linkerd as a service mesh for your multi-cloud API management requirements can provide you with a more integrated approach that will give you end-to-end visibility.

So the recipe for your high-level architecture would be:

• Run Envoy as an API Gateway to handle inbound traffic
• Run Linkerd as a service mesh to give you added observability, security and other non-funcs
• Configure Envoy to route traffic to services within the Linkerd-enabled SM.