Deploying Tyk with Unikraft: Exploring the alignment of unikernels with API gateways

Deploying the Tyk API Gateway using unikernels was explored through a proof of concept (PoC) that demonstrated the feasibility of such an implementation using Unikraft, a secure, open-source unikernel development kit. The PoC involved a hybrid architecture with the data plane hosted on the Unikraft Cloud and the control plane managed locally, illustrating the potential for distributed deployment while maintaining centralized control. The use of unikernels offers security, performance, and efficiency advantages, aligning well with the needs of API gateways. The PoC highlighted key technical insights, such as the importance of boot time for effective stateful caching and the necessity of appropriately setting cooldown times to prevent premature scaling down. The experiment also revealed infrastructure resource limitations, such as the single-core nature of Unikraft Cloud and the need for horizontal scalability. Configuration management was streamlined using environment variables, similar to Docker compose deployments, to handle sensitive information securely. The PoC results, including efficient boot times and successful state caching, suggest that unikernel-based API gateways like Tyk could offer a promising approach for modern, scalable deployments.