March 2019 Summaries

Kong 1.1 introduces significant advancements in its open-source platform, building on its previous release with support for service mesh and unveiling new features such as Declarative Configuration and DB-less Mode. These enhancements allow users to manage their system's state using a single YAML or JSON file, reducing complexity, increasing automation, and facilitating flexible deployment options, including Kubernetes and service mesh support. The DB-less Mode enables users to maintain their configurations in-memory, enhancing resource efficiency and system resiliency by eliminating database dependencies. Additional features include entity tagging for improved tracking and search accuracy, automatic bulk database import, transparent proxying, and enhanced orchestration for Kubernetes deployments, alongside various improvements and bug fixes. The release emphasizes ease of use, system performance, and flexibility, inviting feedback from the community to further refine the platform.

Kong has announced a $43 million Series C funding round led by Index Ventures and board member Mike Volpi, with additional investments from Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, GGV Capital, and World Innovation Lab. This funding supports Kong's mission to develop a service control platform that connects and manages APIs and microservices across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. Highlighting their growth, Kong has achieved over 54 million open-source downloads and secured more than 100 enterprise customers, including notable companies like Yahoo! Japan and Ferrari. The company aims to use this investment to enhance its platform, expand its open-source offerings, and drive international expansion, particularly in the Asia Pacific and European markets. Kong envisions building a foundational technology for the cloud era, facilitating the flow of information in an increasingly connected world predicted to have over 500 billion devices by 2030.

Kong will participate as a sponsor at the AWS Summit Santa Clara, a free event in Santa Clara, gathering attendees across various industries and company sizes. They encourage attendees to schedule one-on-one meetings to explore how Kong's API platform can integrate with their API strategies, focusing on microservice, cloud-native, service mesh, and serverless architectures. Visitors can engage with the Kong team at Booth #134 and have a chance to win prizes through a raffle.