3 Recent Proxy Tools by Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)

by Dan Goodin

02 May 2022

"Proxy & VPN Virtuoso. With a decade in the trenches of online privacy, Dan is your go-to guru for all things proxy and VPN. His sharp insights and candid reviews cut through the digital fog, guiding you to secure, anonymous browsing."

Cloud Native Computing Foundation presents 3 proxy tools. Those handle network communication according to new conditions. The list of proxy services by CNCF includes:

Envoy;
Contour;
BFE.

Let us see more details about the presented proxy services.

Envoy

The creators oriented on cloud-native apps while designing the Envoy proxy. The major features mentioned:

Out of process architecture which equals being a self-contained server;
HTTP/2 and GRPC support for incoming/outcoming connections;
Up to the minute load balancing;
Robust APIs;
Observability.

Envoy has become a basic tool for business giants like Amazon, Booking, eBay, Netflix, and other business legends. Graduated by CNCF, the project has released the 1.22.0 version. You may see more details here.

Contour

At the moment of writing, that is a CNCF incubating project. Yet, the tool already smooths the traffic ingress management. Also, the project functions well with the Envoy mentioned above. The thing is, Contour configures its implementations and delegates ingress.

Dynamic reconfiguration is not the only meaning of the project. Built and designed for Kubernetes, it exists to deploy cloud-native apps with innovative API. In parallel, Contour enhances protection and delegates ingress config for multi-team clusters. You may see more details here.

BFE

You might need an explanation of the designation. BFE stands for Baidu Front End. So, it is apparent that BFE has a ton to do with Baidu. First and foremost, the project functions as an open-source Layer 7 load balancer, which is a wise tool for:

Routing;
Load balancing;
Security;
Observability.

You may vision BFE as a sandbox project — and your supposition is 100% right. In parallel, that is a flexible and practical framework for novel features and plugins. Moreover, BFE supports the most usable protocols.

Domain-specific syntax of BFE is a principally novel addition to the digital realm. At last, we may have human-readable commands. So, writing and comprehending the commands with BFE is trouble-free.

CNCF Background

CNCF — Cloud Native Computing Foundation — is a hub of developers. The organization connects creators and hosts significant components of the tech infrastructure globally. Their projects are usually open-source.