New beta capabilities and experimental support aim to simplify service mesh adoption while expanding Istio’s role in next-generation AI infrastructure
Key Highlights:
- Istio announced ambient multicluster beta, Gateway API Inference Extension beta and experimental agentgateway support at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026.
- New updates simplify multicluster operations and introduce optimized model routing to support AI inference on Kubernetes.
- Updates from Istio benefit platform engineers, operators and application teams running distributed and AI workloads.
KUBECON + CLOUDNATIVECON EUROPE, AMSTERDAM—25 MARCH, 2025—The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, today announced that Istio has launched a host of new features designed to meet the rising needs of modern, AI-driven infrastructure while reducing operational complexity. Updates include the beta release of ambient multicluster support, a beta release of Gateway API Inference Extension and experimental support for agentgateway as a component of the Istio data plane.
CNCF’s Annual Cloud Native Survey found that 66% of organizations are running GenAI workloads on Kubernetes, yet only 7% achieve daily deployments for AI workloads. The data also shows that innovators are nearly three times more likely than explorers to run service mesh in production, signaling that maturity in cloud native practices correlates with advanced traffic management and security adoption.
As AI inference models increasingly run on Kubernetes clusters, projects such as Istio are valuable in securing, routing and observing that traffic. New beta features, such as the simplified Ambient Multicluster, are designed to eliminate the complexity that often impedes organizations from reaching daily deployment velocity for these critical AI workloads. These updates reflect a broader shift toward platform engineering teams building guardrails and infrastructure needed to safely operate the rising demands of AI workloads.
“After nine years, Istio continues to evolve to meet users where they are and where they’re headed,” said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO, CNCF. “These new updates signal Istio’s commitment to being the service mesh of the future for agentic workloads and more.”
Istio’s latest updates are designed to meet the rising demands of AI workloads and simplify operations for all users. Key features include:
- Ambient Multicluster (beta): Ambient Multicluster extends Istio’s ambient mode to support traffic routing across multiple clusters without sidecars, simplifying the deployment and management of service mesh. The result is a simplified approach for teams running applications across regions or clouds for scale and resilience.
- Gateway API Inference Extension (beta): Built as an enhancement to the Gateway API, the extension integrates machine learning inference directly into mesh traffic flows, offering a consistent developer experience (DevEx) that streamlines operations for platform teams familiar with the Kubernetes standard.
- Agentgateway: Experimental support for agentgateway: Experimental support for agentgateway, as part of the Istio data plane, reflects the community’s focus on exploring more flexible, lightweight traffic handling to keep pace with AI development. Originally created by Solo.io and now a Linux Foundation project, agentgateway is designed to help manage dynamic AI-driven traffic patterns. Through this experimental integration, Istio aims to provide a foundation for emerging AI use cases while maintaining compatibility with existing service mesh deployments.
“Istio’s evolution reflects where cloud native infrastructure is headed,” said Keith Mattix, Istio maintainer. “Users want simpler multicluster operations and they want to run AI workloads with confidence. These releases deliver both while staying true to Istio’s roots.”
Together, these updates position Istio to support a shift already underway in cloud native environments. As AI workloads increasingly run on Kubernetes, service mesh technologies like Istio provide the networking, security and observability needed to manage that traffic at scale, supporting everything from model training and inference to agentic systems.
Learn more about Istio and join the community: https://istio.io/
About Cloud Native Computing Foundation
Cloud native computing empowers organizations to build and run scalable applications with an open source software stack in public, private, and hybrid clouds. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of the global technology infrastructure, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. CNCF brings together the industry’s top developers, end users, and vendors and runs the largest open source developer conferences in the world. Supported by nearly 800 members, including the world’s largest cloud computing and software companies, as well as over 200 innovative startups, CNCF is part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation. For more information, please visit www.cncf.io.
The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Media Contact
Haley White
The Linux Foundation