In the past, most software applications were all about “data processing.” In the parlance of old-school management information systems, that meant an almost exclusive focus on keeping accurate transactional records alongside any master data necessary to complete that mission. Transaction processing is important, of course, but in today’s world, applications are expected to deliver a lot more than that.
A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer that manages traffic, also known as communication, between services in applications composed of containerized microservices. It is a critical component in a microservices architecture, responsible for the secure, fast, and reliable communication between services. This article answers a lot of the questions you may have about service meshes: What are they and how do they work? Who is using them and why?