* website: update the vs. envoy and proxies page
This is the second result on Google for "consul envoy" and
it seemed like it needed a bit of an upgrade to help clarify the
current state.
* Update website/source/intro/vs/proxies.html.md
Co-Authored-By: Judith Malnick <judith.patudith@gmail.com>
* Update website/source/intro/vs/proxies.html.md
Co-Authored-By: Judith Malnick <judith.patudith@gmail.com>
* Update website/source/intro/vs/proxies.html.md
Co-Authored-By: Judith Malnick <judith.patudith@gmail.com>
* Update website/source/intro/vs/proxies.html.md
Co-Authored-By: Judith Malnick <judith.patudith@gmail.com>
* Apply suggestions from code review
Co-Authored-By: Judith Malnick <judith.patudith@gmail.com>
Modern service proxies provide high-level service routing, authentication,
telemetry, and more for microservice and cloud environments. Envoy is
a popular and feature rich proxy.
a popular and feature-rich proxy that is often
used on its own. Consul [integrates with Envoy](https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/proxies/envoy.html) to simplify its configuration.
Proxies require a rich set of configuration to operate since backend
addresses, frontend listeners, routes, filters, telemetry shipping, and
@ -33,23 +34,20 @@ access graph, but still requires a proxy to exist in the data path. As a
control plane, Consul integrates with many data plane solutions including
Envoy, HAProxy, Nginx, and more.
Consul provides a built-in proxy written in Go. This trades performance
for ease of use: by being built-in to Consul, users of Consul can get
started with solutions such as Connect without needing to install other
software. But the built-in proxy isn't meant to compete on features or
performance with dedicated proxy solutions such as Envoy. Consul enables
The [Consul Envoy integration](https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/proxies/envoy.html)
is currently the primary way to utilize advanced layer 7 features provided
by Consul. In addition to Envoy, Consul enables
third party proxies to integrate with Connect and provide the data
plane with Consul operating as the control plane.
The Connect feature of Consul operates at layer 4 by authorizing a TLS
connection to succeed or fail. Proxies provide excellent solutions to
layer 7 concerns such as path-based routing, tracing and telemetry, and
more. Consul encourages using any proxy that provides the featureset required
by the user.
Proxies provide excellent solutions to layer 7 concerns such as path-based
routing, tracing and telemetry, and more. By supporting a pluggable data plane model, the right proxy can be
deployed as needed.
For performance-critical applications or those
that utilize layey 7 functionality, Envoy can be used. For non-performance critical layer 4 applications, you can use Consul's [built-in proxy](https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/proxies/built-in.html) for convenience.
Further, by supporting a pluggable data plane model, the right proxy can be
deployed as needed. For non-performance critical applications, the built-in
proxy can be used. For performance critical applications, Envoy can be used.
For some applications that may require hardware, a hardware load balancer
such an F5 appliance may be deployed. Consul provides an API for all of these
solutions to be integrated.
such an F5 appliance may be deployed. Consul encourages this use of the right
proxy for the scenario and treats hardware load balancers as swappable components that can be run
alongside other proxies, assuming they integrate with the [necessary APIs](https://www.consul.io/docs/connect/proxies/integrate.html)
Jack Pearkes
5 years ago
committed by