e kernel.</p><p>Taking into account the resource used, Istio processed 2178 Queries Per Core, vs Cilium&rsquo;s 1815, a 20% improvement.</p><ul><li><strong>The Cilium Slowdown:</strong> Cilium, while boasting impressive low latency with default install parameters, slows down substantially when Istio’s baseline features such as L7 policy and encryption are turned on. Additionally, Cilium’s memory and CPU utilization remained high even when no traffic was flowing in the mesh. This can impact the overall s