Comparison Table: Service Meshes vs Traditional Load Balancers and Reverse Proxies

Comparison Table: Service Meshes vs Traditional Load Balancers and Reverse Proxies.md

Tool	Layer of Operation	Traffic Management	Caching and Compression	Security	Visibility and Monitoring	Scalability	Complexity
Traditional Load Balancer	Layer 4 (TCP/UDP)	Simple algorithmic load balancing	Limited caching and compression capabilities	Minimal security features	Limited visibility into application traffic	Designed for vertical scaling	Simpler configuration and maintenance compared to reverse proxies
Reverse Proxy	Layer 7 (HTTP)	Advanced load balancing techniques	Advanced caching and compression capabilities	Basic authentication and authorization	Some visibility into application traffic	Designed for horizontal scaling	More complex configuration and maintenance compared to traditional load
Service Mesh	Layer 7 (Application)	Context-aware load balancing, including factoring in metadata like user identity, location, and time of day	Fine-grained control over caching and compression based on application-specific rules	Robust security features, including mutual TLS, authentication, and fine-grained access controls	Deep visibility into application traffic, including real-time metrics, traces, and logs	Designed for both horizontal and vertical scaling, with built-in support for rolling updates and failovers	Highly configurable and adaptable, but requires significant expertise and effort to maintain and optimize