Kuma is an open-source control plane for service mesh introduced by Kong, designed to extend the capabilities of the Envoy proxy, which has become a standard in cloud-native applications. It addresses the limitations of earlier service mesh technologies by facilitating seamless management of network services, including L4 and L7 traffic, microservices, and APIs across diverse environments like Kubernetes, virtual machines, and legacy systems. Kuma's fast data plane and advanced control plane enhance usability and adoption, enabling safe, reliable, and observable networks without code changes, while offering advanced customization options. Key features include software-defined security with mTLS, productivity tools for tracing and logging, and sophisticated traffic control like circuit breakers. Supported by Kong, Kuma aims to simplify service communication and promises ongoing contributions to the Envoy project, with further insights available at the Kong Summit 2019.