Today, we're thrilled to announce the general availability of [Kong Konnect](https://konghq.com/kong-konnect)Kong Konnect, the service connectivity platform designed from the ground up for the cloud native era, delivered as a service.

We live in a connected world. Every application we use, whether within or outside of work, is a connected application built on top of dozens - sometimes thousands - of services that enable our digital, connected experiences. Konnect is the only cloud native service connectivity platform that provides an end-to-end service lifecycle.

Konnect is delivered through a hybrid architecture. The control plane for its connectivity runtimes, such as the [Kong Gateway](https://konghq.com/kong)Kong Gateway and [Kong Ingress Controller](https://konghq.com/solutions/kubernetes-ingress)Kong Ingress Controller, is hosted as a cloud service, while multiple data planes can be deployed and self-managed by customers on their preferred environment that is on their own premises, across any cloud or any kubernetes provider in a 100% consistent manner through a web-interface as well as declarative config and API-based interfaces. Following our initial [announcement](https://konghq.com/blog/introducing-kong-konnect)announcement at [Kong Summit 2020](https://konghq.com/kong-summit)Kong Summit 2020, we're making Konnect available today to all Kong customers and prospects. Now, let's take a quick tour of Konnect:

**Hybrid mode boosted with Runtime Manager**

Let's start with the runtimes. Users of the Kong Gateway know that its [deployment architecture](https://docs.konghq.com/enterprise/2.2.x/deployment/deployment-options)deployment architecture involves the designation of a gateway instance as a "control plane," while "data plane" instances form the cluster of data processing gateways that process and manage service data. The control plane requires a database in order to enable the management of data planes across different regions or clouds, and further, this database needs to be replicated across these targets for proper functioning.

With Konnect, users no longer need to worry about installing and operating the Kong Gateway runtime and its database infrastructure. Instead, users can rely on their Konnect cloud account as a hosted control plane and deploy their stateless data plane instances on any environment they choose with a minimal amount of maintenance. Further, users can manage the configuration of the connected (we like to say Konnected! :-)) data planes through Konnect cloud API. Data planes are added and managed through a Konnect functionality we call Runtime Manager.

**A microservices catalog: The system of record**

At the heart of Konnect lies ServiceHub. ServiceHub allows developers to search, discover and consume existing services to accelerate their speed of development. Further, by enabling the re-use of services, enterprise architects can enable faster time to value as well as a more consistent end-user experience across the organization's applications since services are made more consumable, and hence more re-usable.

Every service that is managed through a Konnect runtime needs to be represented by a Service version within ServiceHub, which allows it to act as an accurate and consistent catalogue of all of your services, be it a microservice or otherwise. Further, even services with no runtime implementation - that is services not backed by a Kong Gateway runtime - can be represented in ServiceHub so that they are searchable and even publishable to a Portal.

**Portal and Vitals**

Last but not least, with the launch of Konnect, we are providing Kong's [Portal](https://konghq.com/products/kong-enterprise/dev-portal)Portal and [Vitals](https://konghq.com/kong-konnect#vitals)Vitals capabilities as a service, thus further simplifying the operation of Kong Gateway runtimes without the need for the operational burden of managing those components. Vitals analytics data is collected for every service version added to ServiceHub and implemented through a Gateway.

Every Service in ServiceHub can further be published to a Portal that can be customized with its own themes and colors, along with a Developer and Application registration workflow that allows for the formal exposure of any Service to external developers.

**To infinity and beyond!**

Today's announcement of the general availability of Konnect is only the beginning of Kong's cloud journey. Konnect now serves as a launching platform for accelerating our ability to address our end-user's needs at warp speed! If you would like to try Konnect, please [contact our technical sales team](https://konghq.com/get-started)contact our technical sales team, or if you are an existing Kong customer, you can have access to Konnect right away by contacting your customer success representative!