=conclusion>Conclusion</h2><p>The external control plane deployment model enables the Istio control plane to be run and managed by mesh operators who have operational expertise in Istio, and provides a clean separation between service mesh control and data planes. Mesh operators can run the control plane in their own clusters or other environments, providing the control plane as a service to mesh admins. Mesh operators can run multiple Istiod control planes in a single cluster, deploying their own Istio mes