Azure Kubernetes Application Network Preview

This article covers the preview release of Azure Kubernetes Application Network, a fully managed ambient-based service mesh for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). It highlights key features like no sidecars (using Istio ambient mode), fully managed control and data planes, and multi-cluster design enabling cross-cluster service discovery and mTLS. The architecture includes management, control, and data planes, with automatic certificate rotation and SPIFFE-compliant workload certificates. It addresses operational challenges of multi-cluster networking in AKS at scale, offering a simpler alternative to open-source Istio.