AI gateway vs MCP gateway vs AI control plane

Organizations often encounter shadow AI issues, where unauthorized AI agents interact with production systems, leading to security and governance challenges. This arises primarily in companies that rapidly adopt AI technologies without adequate oversight. New AI infrastructure like AI gateways, MCP gateways, and AI control planes have emerged to address these challenges. AI gateways manage interactions between applications and model providers, handling tasks like routing, failover, and cost tracking. MCP gateways focus on AI agents' connections to systems via the Model Context Protocol, centralizing credential management and ensuring tool access is controlled and logged. AI control planes provide a unified governance layer, integrating both gateways to ensure consistent identity management, policy enforcement, and comprehensive auditing across all AI interactions. These solutions mitigate risks such as data leakage, unauthorized access, and compliance issues by providing comprehensive oversight and control over AI operations within organizations.