Consul Connect
Consul Connect is a service mesh solution built into HashiCorp Consul that enables secure service-to-service communication with automatic TLS encryption and identity-based authorization. It provides a zero-trust network model where services must authenticate and authorize each other before communicating, typically using sidecar proxies like Envoy. This allows developers to implement fine-grained network policies without modifying application code.
Developers should use Consul Connect when building microservices architectures that require secure, encrypted communication between services, especially in dynamic environments like Kubernetes or cloud-native deployments. It is ideal for implementing zero-trust security models, simplifying certificate management, and enabling observability through metrics and traffic control. Use cases include securing internal APIs, enforcing access controls in multi-tenant systems, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements like GDPR or HIPAA.