March 2020 Summaries

Kong for Kubernetes, an Ingress Controller based on the Kong Gateway open-source project, offers enhanced API management capabilities and is fully integrated with Kubernetes. The latest release introduces features such as Knative integration, two new Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) called KongClusterPlugins and TCPIngress, and new annotations that simplify configuration. This allows Kong to manage Knative serverless workloads and perform ingress for various services, including those using custom protocols via TCPIngress. The introduction of KongClusterPlugins addresses plugin configuration issues by enabling cluster-level resource sharing across namespaces, which can be controlled separately from service owners. Additionally, the release supports SNI-based routing for secure TLS-encrypted TCP streams and includes significant changes such as the disabling of default path-stripping behavior and deprecations of certain annotations. Users are encouraged to upgrade and can try Kong for K8s through a free lab environment or by installing it on their own Kubernetes clusters.

Marco Palladino's blog post discusses the complementary roles of API gateways and service meshes, asserting that they can be used simultaneously for different use cases. The post provides a detailed guide on how to integrate Kong for Kubernetes with Kuma Mesh on Kubernetes, requiring users to have a Kubernetes cluster prepared. The process involves installing Kuma using the `kumactl` tool, deploying Kong for Kubernetes as an ingress controller, and configuring services with the appropriate annotations for seamless interaction between the gateway and the mesh. After setting up Kong and Kuma, users are instructed to add a traffic permission policy, allowing them to explore advanced features and plugins offered by Kong in conjunction with Kuma's policies.

Kong, a modern API gateway, offers a more efficient approach to API management compared to traditional gateways by integrating seamlessly with other platforms through its pluggable architecture. Unlike older solutions that attempt to bundle numerous features into a monolithic structure, leading to inefficiencies, Kong leverages a best-in-breed approach that allows it to be fast, scalable, and user-friendly. This blog post highlights how Kong can integrate with identity providers (IdPs) like KeyCloak to manage authentication and authorization without the need to maintain separate user and group management systems within the gateway itself. By utilizing OpenID Connect and JWT tokens, Kong enables the central IdP to handle user identity and entitlements, streamlining API security and reducing operational overhead. Through a practical example with KeyCloak, the post demonstrates how to configure Kong to secure APIs and services, allowing access based on defined scopes within JWT tokens, thus ensuring efficient identity management and access control.

As organizations transition from legacy SOAP web services to microservices, Kong provides a versatile solution for managing multi-protocol traffic, offering extensibility to integrate and proxy existing SOAP services. A real-world example illustrates how a customer utilized Kong to maintain existing service interfaces while enhancing security through LDAP authentication, effectively bridging the gap between legacy systems and modern architectures. By leveraging Kong's serverless plugins and modular design principles, the customer was able to execute custom logic without significant overhead, avoiding the complexities of traditional monolithic API gateways. The setup involved configuring a test service with Kong's Admin API, using the Kong Studio for testing, and implementing plugins for LDAP authentication to ensure seamless service delivery. This approach highlights Kong's ability to support a wide array of use cases, easing the transition to microservices without disrupting service to external business partners. Kong's flexibility and ease of use make it a popular choice for organizations worldwide, reinforcing its status as a leading solution for digital transformation initiatives.