API Management (APIM) and API gateways have long been central to implementing modern API technologies, evolving to encompass full lifecycle API management that includes creation, testing, documentation, and monetization. However, with the emergence of service mesh around 2017, a new pattern for service-to-service connectivity began to gain traction, focusing on improving security and observability without requiring additional code from application teams. Service mesh, marketed aggressively by cloud giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, complements API gateways by decentralizing network management and supporting a broader range of protocols beyond HTTP. Although both technologies overlap in service connectivity, they cater to different use cases: API gateways are ideal for offering APIs as a product and managing the API lifecycle, while service meshes provide secure, reliable connectivity across services using a decentralized sidecar deployment model. Organizations often use both API gateways and service meshes to address distinct product and service connectivity needs, exemplified by industries like finance, where different teams may develop separate products requiring both intra- and inter-application communication.