Bootcamp Overview

This bootcamp provides a deep dive into the security and traffic routing capabilities of Istio Ambient—the next-generation service mesh architecture that eliminates sidecar proxies entirely. You will begin by exploring the shift from classic Istio to the Ambient mesh, learning how to secure service-to-service communication without the traditional architectural overhead.

Through hands-on implementation, you will secure the entire traffic lifecycle: from TLS termination at the Ingress Gateway to full mTLS mesh encryption and controlled Egress monitoring. You will move beyond basic connectivity to master request-based authorization, JWT-based routing, and zero-trust security policies, backed by rigorous error analysis and debugging techniques for complex distributed environments.

On the second day, you will integrate multiple microservices into a unified service mesh. You will apply concrete Istio rules to solve real-world challenges in tracing, resilience, and observability. By working with best practices for traffic shifting and A/B testing, you will learn how to stabilize distributed applications and prevent common failure modes in production.

By the end of the bootcamp, you will be equipped with the scripts, code samples, and expert cheat sheets needed to deploy and operate Istio Ambient. You will be ready to lead service mesh initiatives that balance high-security requirements with operational simplicity across Kubernetes clusters and virtual machines.

Day 1: Security & Identity

Fundamentals

• Introduction to Service Mesh and Istio Ambient
• Ambient vs. Classic: Key benefits and architectural shifts
• Istio Ambient and the Zero-Trust model

Ingress Gateway & TLS

• Implementing Ingress with TLS and mTLS termination
• Security hardening for entry points
• Troubleshooting Ingress connectivity

Peer & Request Authentication

• Activating mTLS for the entire mesh
• Workload coexistence: mTLS and legacy traffic
• End-user Auth: Preparing JWT, JWKS, and claim-based routing

Authorization & Egress

• Defining AuthorizationPolicy: Deny-all vs. Explicit Allow
• Policy testing with Dry Run and best practices
• Egress Gateway: Controlling access to external services
• Istiod Certificate and identity management

Day 2: Traffic & Operations

Building the Mesh

• Service configuration and deployment in Kubernetes
• Core Traffic Rules: Gateway, VirtualService, and DestinationRule
• Observability: Visualizing the mesh with Kiali, Jaeger, and Grafana

Resilience & Metrics

• Distributed tracing: Tracing on demand and data limiting
• Performance monitoring with Prometheus metrics
• Resilience testing: Mesh-level vs. application-level implementations

Advanced Operations

• A/B Testing: Implementing traffic shifting and mirroring
• Canary Releasing: Controlled evolution of your services
• Operational best practices for long-term mesh health

Audience & Requirements

• Designed for developers, architects, and security engineers managing microservices with high security demands
• Ideal for teams operating in Kubernetes clusters who need to move beyond basic networking to zero-trust security
• Prior experience with Kubernetes is helpful to get the most out of the hands-on Istio Ambient implementation
• Bring your technical blockers: we’ll cover real-world traffic management, mTLS, and auth policies
• Come ready to build: you’ll receive slides, code samples, and scripts to deploy your own mesh live