Sharing the Solo story at Cloud Field Day 2023

In January, members of our team had the opportunity to participate in Cloud Field Day, where we presented the Solo.io story and demonstrated our technologies to a broad and diverse set of technologists and industry thought leaders. 

The diversity of backgrounds within the audience represented the realities of most IT organizations. Some already have deep knowledge of cloud native technologies and microservices, while others are new or adjacent to the challenges that can be solved with Solo’s product offerings. 

During our two-hour presentation, we addressed: 

• An overview of Solo, our customers, and how the technologies in the market are changing and converving.
• What is a service mesh and how is the technology evolving? 
• What are the cloud native 2.0 trends that are driving platform engineering teams? 
• How can we make it easier to secure, scale, and save costs on application networking for microservices? 

For more about our Cloud Field Day presentations, check out the videos below. 

Company overview and market overview 

Solo.io Company and Market Overview from Gestalt IT on Vimeo.

I kicked off the conversation with an overview of Solo.io and how customers are using our products. Then I described the market trends shaping the evolution of API management and service mesh. I also introduced the audience to Solo Academy, which is training the next generation of cloud native engineers.

Gloo Platform: Application networking introduction

Solo.io Gloo Platform: Application Networking Introduction from Gestalt IT on Vimeo.

My colleague Christian Posta, VP and Global Field CTO, stepped up to break down application networking and explain why distributed applications need it. As an expert in Istio, he also presented the evolution of Istio Service Mesh – from open source to enterprise use cases.

Gloo Platform: Application networking in the real world

Then Christian broke down the components of Solo’s Gloo Platform, as well as the challenges of managing Istio within an enterprise.

He discussed the Solo Gloo Mesh management plane and the integration of API and service mesh use cases, along with GitOps integration.

Solo.io Gloo Platform: Application Networking in the Real World from Gestalt IT on Vimeo.

Sidecar-less service mesh

In the closing section, Christian shared an introduction to Istio Ambient Mesh, along with the pros and cons of service mesh sidecars. Finally, he ended with his thoughts on the future of Istio, including architecture, security, scaling, and cost reduction.

Solo.io Sidecar-Less Service Mesh from Gestalt IT on Vimeo.

Whether or not you were able to join us for Cloud Field Day 2023, we hope this recap and others from the attendees was helpful, and that we’ll see you at future events. 

If you’re looking to advance your knowledge of cloud native technologies, check out our upcoming trainings at Solo Academy.