Control plane and data plane are key concepts in both networking and modern infrastructure systems like Kubernetes and service meshes, focusing on the separation of responsibilities within a system. The control plane is responsible for establishing and enforcing policies, managing network layouts, updating routing tables, and controlling traffic flow, while the data plane carries out these established policies, such as routing data packets to their destinations. In Kubernetes, the control plane includes components like the API server and the scheduler, which make global decisions about the cluster, while the data plane is made up of worker nodes and pods that execute these decisions. In service meshes, the control plane manages complex configurations and distributes them to sidecar proxies, which form the data plane, facilitating seamless communication between disparate services. This separation allows for scalable, consistent, and manageable application configurations, reducing the complexity and risk associated with deploying and managing distributed systems.