Cilium
Cilium is an open-source networking, security, and observability platform for cloud-native environments, built on the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technology. It provides container networking, load balancing, network security policies, and monitoring capabilities for Kubernetes clusters and other container orchestration systems. By leveraging eBPF, Cilium operates at the kernel level for high performance and fine-grained control without requiring changes to application code.
Developers should learn and use Cilium when deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters that require advanced networking features, such as service mesh capabilities, network security policies based on identity (e.g., pod labels), and deep observability into network traffic. It is particularly valuable in microservices architectures for enforcing security policies, load balancing, and troubleshooting network issues without the overhead of traditional sidecar proxies. Use cases include securing multi-tenant clusters, implementing zero-trust networking, and gaining insights into application dependencies.