Systems and/or methods for non-intrusive injection of context for service mesh applications

A service mesh management system operable in connection with a service mesh proxy configured to route incoming requests to one or more microservices provided in a container pod, the system comprising:

• at least one processor and a memory, the at least one processor storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to perform operations including:
• for at least one of the one or more microservices, defining at least one API twin to be associated therewith, each API twin being definable to access application-level context information unavailable from the incoming requests and to enforce a policy based thereon;
• instantiating a microgateway container for deployment within the container pod, the microgateway container, via instantiation, automatically pulling a definition for each API twin so as to enable policy enforcement for the associated microservice;
• wherein the microgateway container, once deployed, is configurable to (a) automatically modify operation of the service mesh proxy to ensure that incoming requests that otherwise would be directed by the service mesh proxy to an end microservice having one or more API twins associated therewith instead will be automatically re-directed by the service mesh proxy to an appropriate one of these one or more API twins en route to the end microservice, and (b) automatically modify operation of each end microservice having one or more API twins associated therewith to ensure that outgoing responses therefrom that otherwise would be directed by each such end microservice to the service mesh proxy instead will be automatically re-routed to the microgateway en route to the service mesh proxy, wherein (a) and (b) are transparent to requestors;
• wherein incoming requests to the service mesh proxy have an expected structure that is unchanged pre- and post-microgateway container runtime.

A method of operating a computing environment including a service mesh having a service mesh proxy configured to route incoming requests to one or more microservices provided in a container pod, the one or more microservices providing an application usable via the computing environment, the method comprising:

• having a container pod;
• automatically configuring the container pod to include a microgateway container and at least one API twin hosted within the microgateway container, the definition of each API twin associating the respective API twin with one of the one or more microservices, each API twin being operable to enforce a policy based on application-level context information retrieved by the respective API twin but unavailable from the incoming requests;
• and
• running the microgateway container so as to, in accordance with the configuration thereof, automatically modify operation of (a) the service mesh proxy to ensure that incoming requests that otherwise would be directed by the service mesh proxy to an end microservice having one or more API twins associated therewith instead will be automatically re-directed by the service mesh proxy to an appropriate one of these one or more API twins en route to the end microservice, and (b) each end microservice having one or more API twins associated therewith to ensure that outgoing responses therefrom that otherwise would be directed by each such end microservice to the service mesh proxy instead will be automatically re-routed to the microgateway en route to the service mesh proxy, wherein (a) and (b) are transparent to requestors;
• wherein incoming requests to the service mesh proxy have a predefined structure that is unchanged pre- and post-microgateway container runtime.