Cilium

Cilium

Cilium is an open source software for providing and securing network connectivity between application services deployed using Linux container management platforms like Kubernetes. It uses eBPF/XDP for high performance container networking.
Network & Admin Container Networking
Cilium image
networking containers kubernetes ebpf xdp
Cilium alternatives ➤

Cilium: Secure Network Connectivity

Cilium is an open source software providing and securing network connectivity between application services deployed using Linux container management platforms like Kubernetes, utilizing eBPF/XDP for high performance container networking.

What is Cilium?

Cilium is an open source software used to provide and secure network connectivity between application services deployed using Linux container management platforms like Kubernetes. It is developed by the Cilium Project in collaboration with many leaders from the technology industry.

A key capability provided by Cilium is connecting and securing microservices based applications running on container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes. It provides features like load balancing, network security policies, transparent encryption, Kubernetes integrations and cluster mesh routing.

Some of the key technologies used and pioneered by Cilium include:

  • eBPF and XDP for high performance container networking and load balancing
  • Identity based security model to apply network security policies
  • Use of transparent encryption (IPSec) for encrypting container traffic
  • Host routing for efficient East-West routing between containers
  • Integrations with Kubernetes components like kube-proxy, CNI, CRI

Cilium helps simplify networking for container deployments and allows securing connectivity between microservices without changes to the application code. It is used by cloud providers, financial services companies, healthcare organizations among many others to run highly scalable and secure applications.

Cilium Features

Features

  1. eBPF-based networking
  2. Identity-based security policies
  3. Transparent encryption
  4. Load balancing
  5. Direct server return
  6. Bandwidth manager
  7. Observability and analytics

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

High performance networking

Simple to operate

Native Kubernetes integration

Flexible security policies

Scalability

Cons

Complex architecture

Steep learning curve

Limited supported platforms

Immature technology

Official Links

Official Website
https://cilium.io

The Best Cilium Alternatives

Top Network & Admin and Container Networking and other similar apps like Cilium

Here are some alternatives to Cilium:

Kong icon
Kong
Istio icon
Istio
Apache APISIX icon
Apache APISIX
Suggest an alternative ❐

Kong icon

Kong

Kong is an open-source API gateway and service mesh originally developed by Mashape. It is designed to run in front of any RESTful API and act as a proxy, providing functionality like:Traffic routing and load balancingAuthentication and securityRate limiting and monitoringLogging and more...This allows developers to easily secure, manage and...
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Istio icon

Istio

Istio is an open source service mesh that layers transparently onto existing distributed applications. It manages and secures microservice communications without requiring code changes. Key capabilities include:Traffic management - Control flow of traffic and API calls between services. Perform load balancing, failovers, A/B tests, canary rollouts, etc.Observability - Gain understanding...
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Apache APISIX icon

Apache APISIX

Apache APISIX is an open-source, high-performance API gateway that helps organizations manage traffic to their APIs and microservices. It runs natively on Apache web server and handles critical tasks like traffic routing, load balancing, authentication, rate limiting and more to ensure smooth functioning of APIs.APISIX is designed to handle modern...
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