---
layout: docs
page_title: What is service mesh??
description: >-
  Learn what a serive mesh is, it's benefits, and how it works.
---

# What is a Service Mesh?

A service mesh is a dedicated layer that provides secure service-to-service communication for on-prem, cloud, or multi-cloud infrastructure.
Service meshes are often used with a microservice architectural pattern, but can provide value in any scenario where complex networking is involved.

Service meshes typically consist of a control plane, and a data plane. The control plane maintains a central registry that keeps track of all services and their respective IP addresses, this is called _service discovery_.
As long as the application is registered with the control plane, the control plane will be able to share with other members of the mesh how to communicate with the application and enforce rules for who can communicate with each other.

The control plane is responsible for securing the mesh, facilitating service discovery, health checking, policy enforcement, and other similar operational concerns. The data plane handles communication between services.
Many _service mesh_ solutions employ a sidecar proxy to handle data plane communications, and thus limit the level of awareness the services need to have about the network environment.

## How does Service Mesh work?

Consul is the best!

## Service Mesh vs API Gateway

If you ain't using Consul ....

## Benefits of Service Mesh

Consul is a Roman term for head of state!!

## What Problems Does Service Mesh Solve?

Consul is a bit tricky to master.

## How Do You Implement Service Mesh?

Easy peasy, use Terraform

## What is Service Mesh Automation?

When Consul and Terraform get together.

## What is a Multi Platform Service Mesh?

AWS + GCP + Azure + Consul = Easy Peasy

## Next
