Kubermatic KubeLB
Welcome to KubeLB, the next-generation application delivery platform designed for cloud-native architectures. As cloud-native have evolved, KubeLB offers a multi-tenancy approach to load balancing, providing seamless scalability, security, and management for distributed applications and teams.
Evolution of Cloud-Native Load Balancer Architectures
Monolithic Architecture Challenges
- Limited separation for multi-cluster, multi-team applications
- Difficulties in trying new technologies without network team involved
- Inefficient scaling of individual load balancer across many clusters
- Complex, risky, and time-consuming deployments
Cloud-Native Architecture Benefits
- Rapid development and evolution of multi-tenant load balancers services
- Streamline the operation of hundreds of load balancers
- Independent deployment of services
- Efficient scaling of individual load balancers
- Utilization of Kubernetes APIs for lightweight communication
- Enhanced application scalability along teams and Kubernetes clusters
Rise of REST and KubeLB for Microservices Apps
KubeLB Overview
KubeLB is a software-based application delivery and load balancer platform, providing secure, scalable network services for cloud-native applications. Its distributed architecture, powered by high-performance Cilium and Envoy, offers unparalleled flexibility and scalability.
KubeLB introduces significant enhancements including support for Layer 7 Application load balancing through Ingress and Gateway API for advanced traffic management, automated DNS and certificate management for security and automated tenant registration. Additionally, it features the new SyncSecrets API for secure, flexible management of sensitive data alongside various other improvements and features. These upgrades streamline operations and boost performance, making KubeLB ideal for modern data center needs.
Key Features
Layer 4 Load Balancing
Centralized L4 Load Balancing: Provision, manage, and secure Layer 4 load balancers across traditional, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments from a single, unified control plane
TCP/UDP
Both TCP and UDP load balancers are supported along with advanced configuration support using TCPRoute and UDPRoute from Gateway API
BGP
KubeLB can be used with any load balancing appliance and the underlying route advertisement protocol such as BGP, OSPF, L2, are all supported
Ingress
Ingress support for Layer 7 Load Balancing
Gateway API
Extensive Gateway API support for Layer 7 Load Balancing
TLS
Automation to manage and provision certificates from a single control plane
DNS Automation
DNS automation for workloads distributed among a fleet of clusters
IPv6 Support
KubeLB support IPv6 load balancing
Multi-environment support
Private, public, hybrid clouds, moreover multi-cloud environments are also supported
Traffic Management
Advanced traffic management features like circuit breaking, rate limiting, failover, timeouts, retry policies and much more to ensure application resilience and quality of service
Centralized Security & Authentication
Manage security including mTLS, JWT based access control, OIDC integration, API key based authorization etc. for all your tenants from a central point hence ensuring uniformity across your environment
Agent to Agent & MCP Gateway
KubeLB provides support to connect, secure and observe agent-to-agent and agent-to-tools communication using agentgateway. Additionally, routing to Model Context Protocol(MCP) servers is also possible through agentgateway
Mutli-tenant Environment
Each tenant is isolated at namespace and network level enabling higher segregation and curtailing noisy neighbours
No Vendor Lock-in for LoadBalancing appliance
KubeLB can be used with any cloud based, third party, or bare metal loader-balancer appliance or implementation
AI Gateway
KubeLB offers centralized AI Gateway support using gateway support advanced features such as:
- AI Gateway to support and secure LLM consumption
- Inference Gateway support to intelligently route to AI workloads
- Prompt Enrichment and guardrails
Community vs. Enterprise: Feature Breakdown
| Feature | Enterprise Edition | Community Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Ingress |  available | available |
| Gateway API v1 | available | available |
| Bring your own secrets(certificates) | available | available |
| AI Gateway Integration | available | Partially available[1] |
| Tunneling support through CLI | available |  not available |
| Gateway API beta/alpha(TLS/TCP/UDP routes) | available | not available |
| Multiple Gateways | available | not available |
| DNS automation | available | not available |
| Certificate Management | available | not available |
| Limits for LoadBalancers, Gateways | available | not available |
KubeLB has revolutionized our application delivery, seamlessly aligning with the evolution to microservices, providing unparalleled scalability, security, and management while simplifying operational complexities and proving to be an ideal solution for our modern data center requirements.
