WHY GARTNER’S “CONTEXT MESH” CHANGES EVERYTHING AI CONNECTIVITY: THE ROAD AHEAD DON’T MISS API + AI SUMMIT 2026 SEPT 30 – OCT 1
  • [Why Kong](/company/why-kong)Why Kong
    • Explore the unified API Platform
        • BUILD APIs
        • [
          Kong Insomnia](/products/kong-insomnia)
          Kong Insomnia
        • [
          API Design](/products/kong-insomnia/api-design)
          API Design
        • [
          API Mocking](/products/kong-insomnia/api-mocking)
          API Mocking
        • [
          API Testing and Debugging](/products/kong-insomnia/api-testing-and-debugging)
          API Testing and Debugging
        • [
          MCP Client](/products/kong-insomnia/mcp-client)
          MCP Client
        • RUN APIs
        • [
          API Gateway](/products/kong-gateway)
          API Gateway
        • [
          Context Mesh](/products/kong-konnect/features/context-mesh)
          Context Mesh
        • [
          AI Gateway](/products/kong-ai-gateway)
          AI Gateway
        • [
          Event Gateway](/products/event-gateway)
          Event Gateway
        • [
          Kubernetes Operator](/products/kong-gateway-operator)
          Kubernetes Operator
        • [
          Service Mesh](/products/kong-mesh)
          Service Mesh
        • [
          Ingress Controller](/products/kong-ingress-controller)
          Ingress Controller
        • [
          Runtime Management](/products/kong-konnect/features/runtime-management)
          Runtime Management
        • DISCOVER APIs
        • [
          Developer Portal](/products/kong-konnect/features/developer-portal)
          Developer Portal
        • [
          Service Catalog](/products/kong-konnect/features/api-service-catalog)
          Service Catalog
        • [
          MCP Registry](/products/mcp-registry)
          MCP Registry
        • GOVERN APIs
        • [
          Metering and Billing](/products/kong-konnect/features/usage-based-metering-and-billing)
          Metering and Billing
        • [
          APIOps and Automation](/products/apiops-automation)
          APIOps and Automation
        • [
          API Observability](/products/kong-konnect/features/api-observability)
          API Observability
        • [Why Kong?](/company/why-kong)Why Kong?
      • CLOUD
      • [Cloud API Gateways](/products/kong-konnect/features/dedicated-cloud-gateways)Cloud API Gateways
      • [Need a self-hosted or hybrid option?](/products/kong-enterprise)Need a self-hosted or hybrid option?
      • COMPARE
      • [Considering AI Gateway alternatives? ](/performance-comparison/ai-gateway-alternatives)Considering AI Gateway alternatives?
      • [Kong vs. Postman](/performance-comparison/kong-vs-postman)Kong vs. Postman
      • [Kong vs. MuleSoft](/performance-comparison/kong-vs-mulesoft)Kong vs. MuleSoft
      • [Kong vs. Apigee](/performance-comparison/kong-vs-apigee)Kong vs. Apigee
      • [Kong vs. IBM](/performance-comparison/ibm-api-connect-vs-kong)Kong vs. IBM
      • GET STARTED
      • [Sign Up for Kong Konnect](/products/kong-konnect/register)Sign Up for Kong Konnect
      • [Documentation](https://developer.konghq.com/)Documentation
      • FOR PLATFORM TEAMS
      • [Developer Platform](/solutions/building-developer-platform)Developer Platform
      • [Kubernetes and Microservices](/solutions/build-on-kubernetes)Kubernetes and Microservices
      • [Observability](/solutions/observability)Observability
      • [Service Mesh Connectivity ](/solutions/service-mesh-connectivity)Service Mesh Connectivity
      • [Kafka Event Streaming](/solutions/kafka-stream-api-management)Kafka Event Streaming
      • FOR EXECUTIVES
      • [AI Connectivity](/ai-connectivity)AI Connectivity
      • [Open Banking](/solutions/open-banking)Open Banking
      • [Legacy Migration](/solutions/legacy-api-management-migration)Legacy Migration
      • [Platform Cost Reduction](/solutions/api-platform-consolidation)Platform Cost Reduction
      • [Kafka Cost Optimization](/solutions/reduce-kafka-cost)Kafka Cost Optimization
      • [API Monetization](/solutions/api-monetization)API Monetization
      • [AI Monetization](/solutions/ai-monetization)AI Monetization
      • [AI FinOps](/solutions/ai-cost-governance-finops)AI FinOps
      • FOR AI TEAMS
      • [AI Governance](/solutions/ai-governance)AI Governance
      • [AI Security](/solutions/ai-security)AI Security
      • [AI Cost Control](/solutions/ai-cost-optimization-management)AI Cost Control
      • [Agentic Infrastructure](/solutions/agentic-ai-workflows)Agentic Infrastructure
      • [MCP Production](/solutions/mcp-production-and-consumption)MCP Production
      • [MCP Traffic Gateway](/solutions/mcp-governance)MCP Traffic Gateway
      • FOR DEVELOPERS
      • [Mobile App API Development](/solutions/mobile-application-api-development)Mobile App API Development
      • [GenAI App Development](/solutions/power-openai-applications)GenAI App Development
      • [API Gateway for Istio](/solutions/istio-gateway)API Gateway for Istio
      • [Decentralized Load Balancing](/solutions/decentralized-load-balancing)Decentralized Load Balancing
      • BY INDUSTRY
      • [Financial Services](/solutions/financial-services-industry)Financial Services
      • [Healthcare](/solutions/healthcare)Healthcare
      • [Higher Education](/solutions/api-platform-for-education-services)Higher Education
      • [Insurance](/solutions/insurance)Insurance
      • [Manufacturing](/solutions/manufacturing)Manufacturing
      • [Retail](/solutions/retail)Retail
      • [Software & Technology](/solutions/software-and-technology)Software & Technology
      • [Transportation](/solutions/transportation-and-logistics)Transportation
      • [See all Solutions](/solutions)See all Solutions
  • [Pricing](/pricing)Pricing
      • DOCUMENTATION
      • [Kong Konnect](https://developer.konghq.com/konnect/)Kong Konnect
      • [Kong Gateway](https://developer.konghq.com/gateway/)Kong Gateway
      • [Kong Mesh](https://developer.konghq.com/mesh/)Kong Mesh
      • [Kong AI Gateway](https://developer.konghq.com/ai-gateway/)Kong AI Gateway
      • [Kong Event Gateway](https://developer.konghq.com/event-gateway/)Kong Event Gateway
      • [Kong Insomnia](https://developer.konghq.com/insomnia/)Kong Insomnia
      • [Plugin Hub](https://developer.konghq.com/plugins/)Plugin Hub
      • EXPLORE
      • [Blog](/blog)Blog
      • [Learning Center](/blog/learning-center)Learning Center
      • [eBooks](/resources/e-book)eBooks
      • [Reports](/resources/reports)Reports
      • [Demos](/resources/demos)Demos
      • [Customer Stories](/customer-stories)Customer Stories
      • [Videos](/resources/videos)Videos
      • EVENTS
      • [API + AI Summit](/events/conferences/api-ai-summit)API + AI Summit
      • [Agentic Era World Tour](/agentic-era-world-tour)Agentic Era World Tour
      • [Webinars](/events/webinars)Webinars
      • [User Calls](/events/user-calls)User Calls
      • [Workshops](/events/workshops)Workshops
      • [Meetups](/events/meetups)Meetups
      • [See All Events](/events)See All Events
      • FOR DEVELOPERS
      • [Get Started](https://developer.konghq.com/)Get Started
      • [Community](/community)Community
      • [Certification](/academy/certification)Certification
      • [Training](https://education.konghq.com)Training
      • COMPANY
      • [About Us](/company/about-us)About Us
      • [We're Hiring!](/company/careers)We're Hiring!
      • [Press Room](/company/press-room)Press Room
      • [Contact Us](/company/contact-us)Contact Us
      • [Kong Partner Program](/partners)Kong Partner Program
      • [Enterprise Support Portal](https://support.konghq.com/s/)Enterprise Support Portal
      • [Documentation](https://developer.konghq.com/?_gl=1*tphanb*_gcl_au*MTcxNTQ5NjQ0MC4xNzY5Nzg4MDY0LjIwMTI3NzEwOTEuMTc3MzMxODI2MS4xNzczMzE4MjYw*_ga*NDIwMDU4MTU3LjE3Njk3ODgwNjQ.*_ga_4JK9146J1H*czE3NzQwMjg1MjkkbzE4OSRnMCR0MTc3NDAyODUyOSRqNjAkbDAkaDA)Documentation
  • [](/search)
  • [Login](https://cloud.konghq.com/login)Login
  • [Book Demo](/contact-sales)Book Demo
  • [Get Started](/products/kong-konnect/register)Get Started
[Blog](/blog)Blog
  • [AI Gateway](/blog/tag/ai-gateway)AI Gateway
  • [AI Security](/blog/tag/ai-security)AI Security
  • [AIOps](/blog/tag/aiops)AIOps
  • [API Security](/blog/tag/api-security)API Security
  • [API Gateway](/blog/tag/api-gateway)API Gateway
|
    • [API Management](/blog/tag/api-management)API Management
    • [API Development](/blog/tag/api-development)API Development
    • [API Design](/blog/tag/api-design)API Design
    • [Automation](/blog/tag/automation)Automation
    • [Service Mesh](/blog/tag/service-mesh)Service Mesh
    • [Insomnia](/blog/tag/insomnia)Insomnia
    • [View All Blogs](/blog/page/1)View All Blogs
We're Entering the Age of AI Connectivity [Read more](/blog/news/the-age-of-ai-connectivity)Read moreProducts & Agents:
    • [Kong AI Gateway](/products/kong-ai-gateway)Kong AI Gateway
    • [Kong API Gateway](/products/kong-gateway)Kong API Gateway
    • [Kong Event Gateway](/products/event-gateway)Kong Event Gateway
    • [Kong Metering & Billing](/products/usage-based-metering-and-billing)Kong Metering & Billing
    • [Kong Insomnia](/products/kong-insomnia)Kong Insomnia
    • [Kong Konnect](/products/kong-konnect)Kong Konnect
  • [Documentation](https://developer.konghq.com)Documentation
  • [Book Demo](/contact-sales)Book Demo
  1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. News
  4. Happy 2nd Anniversary, Kuma!
[News](/blog/news)News
September 10, 2021
3 min read

# Happy 2nd Anniversary, Kuma!

Marco Palladino
CTO and Co-Founder of Kong

In 2019, my team at Kong [introduced](https://konghq.com/blog/introducing-kuma-universal-service-mesh)introduced a new open source project called [Kuma](https://kuma.io)Kuma. Now a sandbox project of the [CNCF](https://www.cncf.io)CNCF, Kuma is a modern, universal control plane for service mesh based on [Envoy](https://konghq.com/blog/envoy-service-mesh)Envoy.

As we celebrate Kuma's achievements, I want to thank the Kuma community for your support and contributions!

## We Had an Incredible Year

In the **past 12 months **alone, Kuma had:

  • - 800% increase in instances running around the world
  • - 2,200% increase of data plane proxies around the world
  • - Adoption across every vertical, with users like Chipotle, Intel, American Airlines, Cisco, Lenovo, Telus and more

Kuma Service Mesh Control Plane Instance Growth

## Our Community Continues to Grow

Kuma has developed a tight-knit community over the last couple of years. With **2,400 GitHub stars**, Kuma receives support from **43 contributors** and **800 Slack community members**.

Our biggest contributors over the past year included:

  • - Tharun Rajendran [tharun208](https://github.com/tharun208)tharun208
  • - Austin Cawley-Edwards [austince](https://github.com/austince)austince
  • - Pradeep Murugesan [pradeepmurugesan](https://github.com/pradeepmurugesan)pradeepmurugesan
  • - Jacek Ewertow [jewertow](https://github.com/jewertow)jewertow
  • - Sudeepto Roy [sudeeptoroy](https://github.com/sudeeptoroy)sudeeptoroy
  • - Pascual Gabriel [Gabitchov](https://github.com/Gabitchov)Gabitchov
  • - Nikita Pande [nikita15p](https://github.com/nikita15p)nikita15p
  • - Nham Le [nhamlh](https://github.com/nhamlh)nhamlh
  • - Xavier Bauquet [xbauquet](https://github.com/xbauquet)xbauquet
  • - Adrian Golawski [Pan-Bubr](https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/commits?author=Pan-Bubr)Pan-Bubr
  • - Eric Mustin [ericmustin](https://github.com/ericmustin)ericmustin
  • - Bastian Chatelard [bchatelard](https://github.com/bchatelard)bchatelard
  • - Andy Bailey [sonicos](https://github.com/sonicos)sonicos
  • - Lennart Querter [lennartquerter](https://github.com/lennartquerter)lennartquerter
  • - Aadhav Vignesh [burntcarrot](https://github.com/burntcarrot)burntcarrot
  • - Harsha Vaidya [hvydya](https://github.com/hvydya)hvydya
  • - Pablo Loschi [pgold30](https://github.com/pgold30)pgold30

Also, a special shout out to Austin Crawley-Edwards, who became a maintainer for Kuma this year!

## We Pushed 24 Official Releases

In the last year, we went from release 0.7.1 to 1.3 and released hundreds of new features, including 70+ observability charts. Below are highlights from some of the major features shipped in the past 12 months.

### Official Service Map Topology View

Visualize all of your service traffic dependencies with information such as the number of requests and error rates. This new feature ships as a new official Grafana dashboard and can be installed automatically by running kumactl install metrics :

kuma-mesh

### Permissive mTLS

In addition to the traditional “strict” mode, this new mode allows for easier migration of existing applications into the service mesh by allowing more flexibility into how the data plane proxy certificates are validated on incoming requests.

### Rate Limiting

Protect your services from aggressive traffic and downtimes to improve overall application reliability.

### Enhanced L7 Traffic Routing

New L7 Traffic Routing policy to route - and modify - HTTP traffic per path, method, header or any other combination, with regex support. You can modify traffic before reaching the final destination too. This feature works in addition to the existing L4 traffic routing that Kuma provides.

### Improvements in Hybrid and Multi-Zone Capabilities

Kuma's hybrid capabilities allow different service meshes across Kubernetes and VM workloads and support within the same mesh. This, combined with Kuma's multi-zone capabilities, allows users to run one control plane of Kuma with as many service meshes as you need on virtually every platform within your organization.

## Your Feedback Guides Future Improvements

Kuma's roadmap is heavily influenced by the user feedback in production. As such, we will:

  • - Improve performance with our top users to lower CPU and memory consumption on both the data plane proxies and the control planes
  • - Simplify upgrades and automate them for the most part

## Stay in Touch and Keep Up the Feedback

Thank you to the Kuma Community for your support and contributions! Join [the Kuma community](https://kuma.io/community)the Kuma community on GitHub, Slack, Community Calls or Meetup if you haven't already.

- [Kuma](/blog/tag/kuma)Kuma- [Events](/blog/tag/events)Events- [Open Source](/blog/tag/open-source)Open Source

## More on this topic

_Videos_

## From Alert to Action: AI-Driven API Outage Analysis

_Videos_

## Democratizing Access to Real-Time Data: Build a Self-Service Platform your Devs Love

## See Kong in action

Accelerate deployments, reduce vulnerabilities, and gain real-time visibility. 

[Get a Demo](/contact-sales)Get a Demo
**Topics**
- [Kuma](/blog/tag/kuma)Kuma- [Events](/blog/tag/events)Events- [Open Source](/blog/tag/open-source)Open Source
Marco Palladino
CTO and Co-Founder of Kong

Recommended posts

# API innovation runs wild at Kong Summit 2022

[News](/blog)NewsJuly 28, 2022

Join the builders and leaders taming the API jungle live and in person at Kong Summit 2022 September 28-29, 2022, at the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. Registration is now open . Kong Summit 2022 will feature more than 70 sp

Marco Palladino
[](https://konghq.com/blog/news/kong-summit-2022)

# API Innovator Awards spotlight outstanding Kong projects and community users

[News](/blog)NewsJune 28, 2022

Each year at Kong Summit , we shine a light on projects and people ahead of the pack in their use of Kong. And what better way to do that than with a shiny gorilla statue. We call them the API Innovator Awards . The API Innovator Awards recognize

Eric Pulsifer
[](https://konghq.com/blog/news/api-innovator-awards)

# Celebrating Four Years of Kong Inc.

[News](/blog)NewsAugust 27, 2021

What a year we have had! Hypergrowth, a huge community, and lots of recognition. But what we are most proud of is how Kong's technology has impacted the world, thanks to our users. We can't thank these users and the community enough for making Kong

Marco Palladino
[](https://konghq.com/blog/news/celebrating-four-years)

# Announcing Solace as Kong’s Newest Premium Technology Partner

[News](/blog)NewsFebruary 10, 2026

Kong is excited to announce Solace as the newest member of our Premium Technology Partner Program, a program designed to deliver high-quality, reliable integrations that provide real business value for customers. Together, Kong and Solace unify AP

Cindy Maurice
[](https://konghq.com/blog/news/solace-kong-premium-technology-partner)

# Bringing Gateway API for Mesh to Kuma

[Engineering](/blog)EngineeringJune 28, 2023

The release of Kuma 2.3 brings experimental support for GAMMA (Gateway API for Mesh Management and Administration) resources. Kuma has long supported Gateway API with the built-in gateway for ingress traffic but with GAMMA support, users can specify

Mike Beaumont
[](https://konghq.com/blog/engineering/gamma-and-kuma)

# Building Async Standup Culture Across the World

[Enterprise](/blog)EnterpriseFebruary 23, 2022

Since I started at Kong, we've always been a heavily international company. This has been a unique and fulfilling experience as we come in with a variety of backgrounds. However, it comes with some challenges. Most notably, the time differences as w

Amy Wang
[](https://konghq.com/blog/enterprise/building-async-standup-culture)

# Authorizing Microservice APIs With OPA and Kuma

[Engineering](/blog)EngineeringMarch 16, 2021

Many companies are leveraging DevOps, microservices , automation, self-service, cloud and CI/CD pipelines. These megatrends are changing how companies are building and running software. One thing that often slips through the cracks is security. Wit

Tim Hinrichs
[](https://konghq.com/blog/engineering/authorize-api-opa-kuma)

## Ready to see Kong in action?

Get a personalized walkthrough of Kong's platform tailored to your architecture, use cases, and scale requirements.

[Get a Demo](/contact-sales)Get a Demo
Ask AI for a summary of Kong
  • [](https://chatgpt.com/s/t_69b981cfa37081919ce25ce107c431c1)
  • [](https://share.google/aimode/hyefOiNwl8pg8W99d)
  • [](https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-solutions-does-kong-offer-VsYWPddxQjajgvLA4B9hjQ)
Stay connected

## step-0

    • Company
    • [About Kong](/company/about-us)About Kong
    • [Customers](/customer-stories)Customers
    • [Careers](/company/careers)Careers
    • [Press](/company/press-room)Press
    • [Events](/events)Events
    • [Contact](/company/contact-us)Contact
    • [Pricing](/pricing)Pricing
    • Legal
    • [Terms](/legal/terms-of-use)Terms
    • [Privacy](/legal/privacy-policy)Privacy
    • [Trust and Compliance](https://trust.konghq.com)Trust and Compliance
    • Platform
    • [Kong AI Gateway](/products/kong-ai-gateway)Kong AI Gateway
    • [Kong Konnect](/products/kong-konnect)Kong Konnect
    • [Kong Gateway](/products/kong-gateway)Kong Gateway
    • [Kong Event Gateway](/products/event-gateway)Kong Event Gateway
    • [Kong Insomnia](/products/kong-insomnia)Kong Insomnia
    • [Documentation](https://developer.konghq.com)Documentation
    • [Book Demo](/contact-sales)Book Demo
    • Compare
    • [AI Gateway Alternatives](/performance-comparison/ai-gateway-alternatives)AI Gateway Alternatives
    • [Kong vs Apigee](/performance-comparison/kong-vs-apigee)Kong vs Apigee
    • [Kong vs IBM](/performance-comparison/ibm-api-connect-vs-kong)Kong vs IBM
    • [Kong vs Postman](/performance-comparison/kong-vs-postman)Kong vs Postman
    • [Kong vs Mulesoft](/performance-comparison/kong-vs-mulesoft)Kong vs Mulesoft
    • Explore More
    • [Open Banking API Solutions](/solutions/open-banking)Open Banking API Solutions
    • [API Governance Solutions](/solutions/api-governance)API Governance Solutions
    • [Istio API Gateway Integration](/solutions/istio-gateway)Istio API Gateway Integration
    • [Kubernetes API Management](/solutions/build-on-kubernetes)Kubernetes API Management
    • [API Gateway: Build vs Buy](/campaign/secure-api-scalability)API Gateway: Build vs Buy
    • [Kong vs Apigee](/performance-comparison/kong-vs-apigee)Kong vs Apigee
    • Open Source
    • [Kong Gateway](https://developer.konghq.com/gateway/install/)Kong Gateway
    • [Kuma](https://kuma.io/)Kuma
    • [Insomnia](https://insomnia.rest/)Insomnia
    • [Kong Community](/community)Kong Community

Kong enables the connectivity layer for the agentic era – securely connecting, governing, and monetizing APIs and AI tokens across any model or cloud.

  • Japanese
  • Frenchcoming soon
  • Spanishcoming soon
  • Germancoming soon
© Kong Inc. 2026
Interaction mode