Antrea vs Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium

Antrea provides networking and security for Kubernetes workloads by implementing the Container Network Interface and Kubernetes NetworkPolicy. It uses Open vSwitch as its data plane, including for Kubernetes Service load balancing. Depending on infrastructure and use case, clusters can use VXLAN or Geneve overlays or run without an overlay. Antrea extends Kubernetes policy controls with tiers, rule priorities, cluster-level policies, and Node policies. It can federate clusters with a unified data plane, multi-cluster Services, and security posture. Diagnostics include command-line and UI tools for packet tracing, policy analysis, and flow inspection; metrics can be exported to Prometheus. Pod traffic encryption with IPsec or WireGuard is supported between Linux nodes, but not on Windows nodes. Deployment guides cover Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, and Google GKE, with GKE marked Alpha. The project requires a Kubernetes cluster and the Open vSwitch kernel module on every node, and its overview says it has been tested with Kubernetes 1.23 or later. Antrea is an open-source CNCF sandbox project under Apache License 2.0.

Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium is a paid, hardened distribution of Cilium, Hubble, and Tetragon, built and supported by Cilium’s creators. Cilium supplies network-layer connectivity and security across multi-cloud and on-premises environments. Enterprise policies include DNS-aware, Layer 7, and deny rules for fine-grained traffic control and micro-segmentation. Hubble provides real-time network-flow visibility, policy visualization, and an interface for troubleshooting and network management. Tetragon adds runtime enforcement and security observability, including protocol enforcement, IP and port whitelisting, and automatic application-aware policy generation. Cluster Mesh connects clusters across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and on-premises environments. The product also offers sidecar-free service communication and advanced load balancing. It runs on Linux in self-hosted environments, with hybrid deployment and a distributed control plane. Deployment guidance covers Azure Marketplace, an Azure Resource Manager template, and Azure CLI. Pricing is on request. Hubble UI, DNS Proxy HA, and Tetragon are not enabled by default for AKS creation or upgrades.