Overview

What is Isovalent Enterprise Platform?

The Isovalent Enterprise Platform consists of three core components built on eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) technology:

Cilium

Cloud Native CNI and Network Security

  • eBPF-based networking and security for Kubernetes
  • Replaces kube-proxy with high-performance eBPF datapath
  • Native support for AWS ENI mode (pods get VPC IP addresses)
  • Network policy enforcement at L3-L7
  • Transparent encryption and load balancing

Hubble

Network Observability

  • Built on top of Cilium’s eBPF visibility
  • Real-time network flow monitoring
  • L7 protocol visibility (HTTP, DNS, gRPC, Kafka)
  • Flow export and historical data storage (Timescape)
  • Metrics exposed on port 9965

Tetragon

Runtime Security and Observability

  • eBPF-based runtime security
  • Process execution monitoring
  • System call tracing
  • File access tracking
  • Security event metrics on port 2112

Architecture

graph TB
    subgraph AWS["Amazon Web Services"]
        subgraph EKS["EKS Cluster"]
            subgraph Node["Worker Node"]
                CA["Cilium Agent<br/>:9962"]
                CE["Cilium Envoy<br/>:9964"]
                HA["Hubble<br/>:9965"]
                TE["Tetragon<br/>:2112"]
                OC["OTel Collector"]
            end
            CO["Cilium Operator<br/>:9963"]
            HR["Hubble Relay"]
        end
    end
    
    subgraph Splunk["Splunk Observability Cloud"]
        IM["Infrastructure Monitoring"]
        DB["Dashboards"]
    end
    
    CA -.->|"Scrape"| OC
    CE -.->|"Scrape"| OC
    HA -.->|"Scrape"| OC
    TE -.->|"Scrape"| OC
    CO -.->|"Scrape"| OC
    
    OC ==>|"OTLP/HTTP"| IM
    IM --> DB

Key Components

ComponentService NamePortPurpose
Cilium Agentcilium-agent9962CNI, network policies, eBPF programs
Cilium Envoycilium-envoy9964L7 proxy for HTTP, gRPC
Cilium Operatorcilium-operator9963Cluster-wide operations
Hubblehubble-metrics9965Network flow metrics
Tetragontetragon2112Runtime security metrics

Benefits of eBPF

  • High Performance: Runs in the Linux kernel with minimal overhead
  • Safety: Verifier ensures programs are safe to run
  • Flexibility: Dynamic instrumentation without kernel modules
  • Visibility: Deep insights into network and system behavior
Note

This integration provides visibility into Kubernetes networking at a level not possible with traditional CNI plugins.