</div><p class=post-author>Feb 28, 2023 <span>|</span> By John Howard - Google, Lin Sun - Solo.io</p><div><p>Istio ambient service mesh was <a href=/v1.18/blog/2022/introducing-ambient-mesh/>launched in Sept 2022</a> in an experimental branch, introducing a new data plane mode for Istio without sidecars. Through collaboration with the Istio community, across Google, Solo.io, Microsoft, Intel, Aviatrix, Huawei, IBM and others, we are excited to announce that Istio ambient mesh has graduated from the experime