The service mesh architecture pattern has become essential for microservices-based projects and emphasizes the importance of controlling all application components, including databases and event processing services. It focuses on managing east-west traffic within the application, applying multiple policies related to security, traffic control, and observability, while also addressing north-south ingress traffic for external consumption, which involves authentication and metrics management. The blog post discusses a reference architecture using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) and technologies like Istio Service Mesh and Kong Ingress Controller, highlighting the capabilities of Red Hat OCP in deploying applications and service meshes across hybrid clouds. The architecture integrates Kong's technologies, Konnect, and KIC, to build modern applications, with Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh providing functions like monitoring and load balancing, while Kong Ingress Controller enforces policies like authentication and traffic monitoring. Additional layers include Keycloak for OIDC-based authentication and Kiali for monitoring and management, leveraging Prometheus and Grafana for visualization and analytics.