# Istio

> Istio is an open source service mesh for Kubernetes that adds traffic routing, security and observability between services without changing the code.

- Source: https://www.itwonderlab.com/istio/
- Published: 2026-09-09
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Author: Javier Ruiz Jiménez (https://www.javierruizjimenez.com/)
- Site: IT Wonder Lab (https://www.itwonderlab.com/)

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**Istio** places an Envoy proxy next to each workload and controls it from a central control plane. It enables traffic splitting, retries, mutual TLS and metrics for the communication between services.

### Key concepts

- **Gateway**, **VirtualService** and **DestinationRule**: route and split traffic.
- **Sidecar**: the Envoy proxy injected in each pod.
- **Telemetry**: metrics for [Prometheus](https://www.itwonderlab.com/prometheus/) and dashboards in [Grafana](https://www.itwonderlab.com/grafana/).

### Learn it

Try [Istio in a local Kubernetes cluster](https://www.itwonderlab.com/istio-in-local-kubernetes/).