F5 NGINX Releases NGINX Gateway Fabric Version 1.0

F5 NGINX has announced the release of NGINX Gateway Fabric Version 1.0.

The new solution provides fast, reliable, and secure Kubernetes app connectivity, leveraging Gateway API specifications and NGINX, which is one of most widely used data planes in the world.

NGINX Gateway Fabric 1.0 represents a new tool category for Kubernetes. It is a unified application delivery fabric designed to streamline and simplify app, service, and API connectivity in Kubernetes, reducing complexity, improving availability, and providing security and visibility at scale.

“At NGINX, we see the long-term future of unified app and API connectivity to, from, and within a Kubernetes cluster in the Gateway API. NGINX Gateway Fabric is the reflection of our vision. It is architected to enable both north-south and east-west Kubernetes app and service connectivity use cases, effectively combining Ingress controller and service mesh capabilities in one unified tool that leverages the same control and data planes with centralized management across any Kubernetes environment,” said Ilya Krutov, Product Marketing Manager at F5 NGINX. “With version 1.0, we are focusing on advanced connectivity use cases at the edge of a Kubernetes cluster, such as blue-green deployments, TLS termination, and SNI routing. In the future roadmap, there are plans to expand these capabilities with more security and observability features, including addressing service-to-service communications use cases.”

NGINX Gateway Fabric 1.0 is architected to deliver future-proof connectivity for apps and services to, from, and within a Kubernetes cluster with its built-in support for advanced use cases, role-based API model, and extensibility that unlocks the true power of NGINX.

It also standardizes on three primary Gateway API resources (GatewayClass, Gateway, and Routes) with role-based‑ access control (RBAC) mapping to the associated roles (infrastructure providers, cluster operators, and application developers).

Notably, NGINX Gateway Fabric 1.0 helps increase uptime and reduce complexity of Kubernetes environments from edge to cloud. It is designed to simplify operations, unlock advanced capabilities, and provide seamless interoperability for Kubernetes environments, delivering improved, future-proof Kubernetes app and service connectivity.

Key benefits include:

• Data plane – Built on one of the world’s most popular data planes, NGINX Gateway Fabric provides fast, reliable, and secure connectivity for Kubernetes apps. It simplifies and streamlines Kubernetes platform deployment and management by leveraging the same data and control planes across any hybrid, multi-cloud Kubernetes environment, reducing complexity and tool sprawl.
• Extensibility – Unlike Kubernetes Ingress resources, many advanced use cases are available “out of the box” with NGINX Gateway Fabric, including blue-green and canary deployments, A/B testing, and request/response manipulation. It also defines an annotation-less extensibility model with extension points and policy attachments to unlock advanced NGINX data plane features that are not supported by the API itself.
• Interoperability – NGINX Gateway Fabric is a dedicated and conformant implementation of the Gateway API, which provides high-level configuration compatibility and portability for easier migration across different implementations. Its Kubernetes-native design ensures seamless ecosystem integration with other Kubernetes platform tools and processes like Prometheus and Grafana.
• Governance – NGINX Gateway Fabric features a native role-based API model that enables self-service governance capabilities to share the infrastructure across multi-tenant teams. As an open source project, it operates compliant with established community governance procedures, delivering full transparency in its development process, features roadmap, and contributions.
• Conformance – NGINX Gateway Fabric is tested and validated to conform with the Gateway API specifications in accordance with standardized conformance tests, ensuring a consistent experience with API operations.