Envoy 1.30: Proxy Performance and Protocol Excellence

Introduction

If you run Kubernetes at any meaningful scale, you’re probably running Envoy somewhere—ingress, service mesh, API gateway, or all three. That makes Envoy upgrades less about “new proxy features” and more about foundational improvements in performance, protocol handling, and extensibility.

Envoy 1.30, released on September 30, 2025, continues to sharpen the proxy core with HTTP/3/QUIC work, WASM runtime improvements, and dataplane optimizations that directly impact latency, throughput, and operational safety for gateways and meshes.

Why this matters in practice

• HTTP/3 is moving to mainstream: QUIC improvements matter for edge/mobile and modern browsers.
• WASM extensions: better runtime/tooling reduces risk when you rely on custom filters.
• Performance compounding: small proxy efficiency gains multiply across fleets and traffic volumes.

HTTP/3 & QUIC Enhancements

• QUIC protocol improvements provide better HTTP/3 performance and reliability with optimized connection handling and congestion control.
• Connection migration enhancements enable seamless connection migration across network interfaces for mobile and edge scenarios.
• Stream multiplexing improvements increase efficiency for concurrent requests with better flow control and prioritization.
• Migration support enables smooth transition from HTTP/2 to HTTP/3 with automatic protocol negotiation and fallback mechanisms.

WebAssembly Runtime

1. WASM performance improvements provide up to 40% better performance for WebAssembly extensions through optimized runtime and compilation.
2. Plugin management enhancements enable easier development, testing, and deployment of WASM plugins with improved tooling and debugging.
3. Sandboxing improvements provide better isolation and security for WASM extensions with enhanced memory management.
4. API expansion enables more powerful WASM extension capabilities including access to more Envoy internals and system resources.

Performance Optimizations

• Memory efficiency improvements reduce memory usage by up to 30% for high-throughput workloads through better buffer management and pooling.
• CPU optimization reduces overhead for request processing, routing, and load balancing with optimized algorithms and data structures.
• Connection pooling enhancements improve efficiency for backend connections with intelligent connection reuse and health checking.
• Caching improvements reduce latency for frequently accessed resources with better cache invalidation and hit rates.

Upgrade and HTTP/3 Configuration

• WASM ABI: Rebuild extensions against 1.30 SDK; older WASM modules may fail strict ABI checks.
• Runtime guardrails: Enable gradual rollout with runtime keys for HTTP/3 and new codecs.
• QUIC config example:

static_resources:
  listeners:
  - name: ingress
    address:
      socket_address: { address: 0.0.0.0, port_value: 443 }
    filter_chains:
    - transport_socket:
        name: envoy.transport_sockets.quic
        typed_config:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.transport_sockets.quic.v3.QuicDownstreamTransport
          downstream_tls_context:
            common_tls_context:
              tls_certificates:
              - certificate_chain: { filename: "tls.crt" }
                private_key: { filename: "tls.key" }
      filters:
      - name: envoy.filters.network.http_connection_manager
        typed_config:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.network.http_connection_manager.v3.HttpConnectionManager
          codec_type: AUTO
          stat_prefix: ingress_http
          route_config: { name: local_route, virtual_hosts: [] }
          http3_protocol_options: {}

• Fallback: Keep HTTP/2 enabled; verify ALPN negotiation and monitor upstream_cx_tx_bytes_total for regressions.
• Admin safety: Restrict /stats and /config_dump with RBAC; new debug endpoints expose more detail.

Protocol Support

• gRPC enhancements provide better support for gRPC traffic including improved load balancing, retries, and circuit breaking.
• Kafka improvements enable better handling of Kafka protocol traffic with enhanced consumer group management and offset handling.
• Redis support enhancements provide better Redis protocol handling for cache and pub/sub use cases.
• HTTP/2 improvements ensure optimal HTTP/2 performance with better frame handling and multiplexing.

Observability & Debugging

1. Metrics expansion provides detailed metrics for all protocols and operations with enhanced Prometheus integration.
2. Access logging improvements include structured logging with configurable formats and enhanced request/response details.
3. Distributed tracing enhancements provide better OpenTelemetry and Jaeger integration with improved trace sampling and correlation.
4. Debug endpoints enable easier troubleshooting with comprehensive debug APIs and admin interface improvements.

Getting Started

# Install Envoy using Docker
docker run -d --name envoy \
  -v $(pwd)/envoy.yaml:/etc/envoy/envoy.yaml \
  -p 10000:10000 \
  envoyproxy/envoy:v1.30.0

# Or install using Envoy Operator
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/download/v1.0.0/install.yaml

Summary

Envoy 1.30 continues to set the standard for cloud-native proxies, providing the foundation for service meshes and API gateways with unparalleled performance and flexibility.