Ops Development & AI Practice

Sep 25, 2026 · Cloud Native

Apache APISIX Evolution: From Disrupting Kong to Premier AI Gateway

This article traces Apache APISIX's four-phase evolution: its etcd-based architecture achieving millisecond config updates versus Kong's seconds, its 9-month Apache graduation, multi-language plugin runner and Wasm support, Kubernetes-native ingress controller, and transformation into an AI Gateway with token-based rate limiting, protocol normalization, and SSE streaming optimization.