The acceleration of microservices and containerized workloads has transformed software delivery, but also introduced complexities in networking, security, and observability, prompting the adoption of service meshes to manage these challenges. A service mesh provides a dedicated infrastructure layer for tasks like traffic control, access policies, and monitoring, freeing application code from infrastructure burdens and allowing developers to focus on business logic. By integrating seamlessly with container orchestrators and auto-injecting proxies, a service mesh simplifies deployment and management of distributed applications across hybrid or multi-cloud environments. Early adoption, or "Day 0" implementation, of a service mesh like Kuma helps manage cross-cutting concerns from the outset, preventing technical debt and easing scalability as the architecture grows, while tools like Kuma and Kong Mesh offer usability improvements to streamline the setup process. These solutions provide essential capabilities out of the box, such as mTLS and observability pipelines, enabling organizations to maintain reliable, secure connectivity and focus on core product development as they embrace cloud-native architectures.