Share your experience using Buoyant Linkerd

The solution is used for high availability. We use it for the backend to distribute the load.

We needed a simple proxy system that is open source. HAProxy was the most used tool for any issues that we ran into. We did not want to use something that was not used much so that we could fix the issues that came up.

The solution is effective in managing our traffic. The integrations work fine. It's a load balancer. There's no need for complex integration. We hit it, and it balances the load in the servers that we assigned to it.

The product has the basic foundations of any load-balancing product. It is simple and basic. The product does not have any new technologies.

I have been using the solution for a few years.

The tool seems very stable. I have not heard of the infrastructure team having any issues with it.

The tool is scalable. We have everything we need.

The product is open source.

There are better tools, but the product does the job well. All my colleagues know the tool and have used it. I recommend the product to others. Companies that have complex environments must not choose HAProxy. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

The tool's mutual TLS stands out. It provides secure communication between services within the cluster. Additionally, Istio offers built-in telemetry and tracing with tools like Jaeger, which aids monitoring and troubleshooting. 

If you're a beginner in infrastructure management and networking, learning Istio might pose some challenges. However, if you have some knowledge of networking or service meshes, you should find it manageable. Istio's website offers documentation to guide you through learning. 

I have been working with the product for two years. 

Bugs are a part of the process with any tool. Istio, like any other software, may have bugs, but overall, it's quite stable. The tool's stability depends on how it's deployed. I've found it to be stable, as I've been using it for three years without facing any major issues.

I'm the only one using Istio in our organization. As the infrastructure manager, I handle all aspects of it myself.

We haven't contacted Istio's technical support team yet. We're using the open-source version, not the enterprise one, so we haven't needed to reach out for help.

Our company decided to use Istio because we needed to implement mutual TLS for our APIs, ensuring encrypted connections between them. We explored Istio further and discovered its capabilities, such as its virtual service and gateways. These features allowed us to modify network traffic, enabling functionalities like canary deployment through header-based routing rules. So, mutual TLS and traffic management were the primary reasons for choosing Istio.

Deploying Istio isn't complicated. It has its installation method and supports different profiles. You can install one or more profiles within the cluster without causing chaos. The installation process is straightforward and comes with verification. Overall, it's not a big deal to install Istio.

We use the tool's open-source version, so there are no hidden fees or additional costs associated with it.

Improvement of Istio depends on what we're trying to do with it and its ecosystem. It's highly customizable, allowing for changes as needed. 
Regarding traffic management capabilities, Istio can help handle millions of concurrent connections. However, it won't directly enhance your API's performance. Instead, it improves capabilities like circuit breaking and connection handling, which can enhance performance indirectly. For example, the tool can manage request limits and implement retry mechanisms without developers needing to intervene. While it can streamline development efforts, performance enhancements depend on resource utilization and code quality.

Whether or not you should use the tool depends on your specific requirements. To give you advice, I'd need to understand your needs and how Istio could potentially enhance your infrastructure.

I would rate Istio around a six to seven out of ten. This rating is because I haven't fully utilized its capabilities, so I may not have experienced its full potential.