Overview
Gloo is a term that can refer to different entities, each with distinct purposes and functionalities:
- Gloo for Faith Communities and Content Publishers This Gloo is a technology platform supporting faith communities, particularly Christian publishers, content creators, and church-serving organizations. Key features include:
- Mobile App: Allows users to stay connected with their community, manage prayer requests, send messages, and create broadcasts. It integrates with various church management systems.
- AI Tools: Includes Data Engine, Aspen, and the Christian-aligned Large Language Model (CALLM). These tools enrich and protect content, provide faith-aligned answers, and extend the reach of Christian publishers through AI-powered solutions.
- Gloo Mesh for Service Mesh Management Part of the Solo.io ecosystem, Gloo Mesh focuses on service mesh management for enterprise environments. Key aspects include:
- Architecture: Builds on the Gloo Platform to manage multiple service mesh control planes across different cloud providers and Kubernetes-based platforms.
- Features: Offers intelligent multicluster routing, failover, rate limiting, external authentication, and comprehensive monitoring. It integrates with Istio and Kubernetes resources. These distinct Gloo entities serve different purposes: one supports faith communities with mobile and AI tools, while the other provides service mesh management solutions for enterprise environments.
Leadership Team
Gloo's leadership team comprises experienced executives and board members who guide the company's strategic direction and drive innovation in personal growth solutions and technological advancements. Executive Team:
- Scott and Theresa Beck: Co-Founders and CEOs, with a background in building diverse companies
- Brad Hill: Chief Solutions Officer
- Ben Gauthier: Chief Product Officer
- Steele Billings: Chief AI Officer
- Brian Johnson: Chief Technology Officer
- John Fowle: Chief Financial Officer
- Stuart Fullwinder: Chief Administration Officer Board of Directors:
- Pat Gelsinger (Chairman): Former CEO of Intel and VMWare, holds multiple patents in VSLI design, computer architecture, and communication
- Scott Kriens: Former President and CEO of Juniper Networks, involved with the 1440 Foundation
- Nona Jones: Chief Content and Partnerships Officer at YouVersion, former leader of Global Faith Partnerships at Meta
- Bishop Claude Alexander, Jr.: Pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, NC
- Jack Furst: Founder of Oak Stream Investors, distinguished private equity investor The leadership team is responsible for setting strategic direction, driving innovation, ensuring operational excellence, and fostering a culture of teamwork and accountability at Gloo.
History
The term Gloo refers to several distinct entities, each with its own unique history and purpose:
- Gloo - Electronic Music Group
- Formed in 2019 by Iglooghost, Kai Whiston, and BABii
- Long-time collaborators from the UK
- Released debut track Lamb in August 2019
- Launched debut album XYZ in September 2019, receiving positive critical reception
- Gloo - Solo.io Products
- Developed as part of Solo.io's cloud connectivity solutions
- Products include Gloo Gateway, Gloo AI Gateway, and Gloo Mesh
- Aims to simplify cloud connectivity, security, and observation for API pioneers and Kubernetes platform teams
- Solo.io has been actively involved in open-source communities (Istio, Envoy, Kubernetes)
- Secured $135 million in Series C funding in 2021, reaching a $1 billion valuation
- Gloo - Church Engagement Solutions
- Focuses on providing tools and solutions for ministries
- Offers church engagement tools, insights, fundraising, and a marketplace for Christians
- Mission: Advance missional impact and support pastors, publishers, donors, and network leaders These distinct Gloo entities operate in diverse fields, including music, cloud technology, and church engagement, each with its own specialized focus and development timeline.
Products & Solutions
Gloo, offered by Solo.io, is a comprehensive suite of products and solutions designed to manage and secure network application traffic in cloud-native environments. The key components include:
Gloo Platform
The Gloo Platform is a unified set of tools for managing Layer 3 through Layer 7 network application traffic, integrating several products and modules:
- Gloo Mesh Core: Deploys alongside Istio environments, manages Istio lifecycle, and provides hardened FIPS-compliant Istio images. It includes an insights engine for analyzing health, security, and resiliency issues.
- Gloo Mesh Enterprise: Builds on Gloo Mesh Core, managing Istio-based service meshes across clusters and infrastructure providers. It secures communication via mutual TLS (mTLS) and offers simplified management for multitenancy, service isolation, and federation.
- Gloo Mesh Gateway: An API gateway based on Envoy and Istio technologies, providing control over network traffic with features like virtual gateways, route tables, and security filters.
Key Features and Capabilities
- Zero Trust Security: Enables cryptographic authentication for every API call, user, partner, and application.
- Cloud-Native Application Development: Accelerates microservice deployments and application modernization.
- DevOps and Automation: Enhances agility through automation and GitOps practices.
- Omni-Directional Connectivity: Provides security, observability, and traffic management for all network requests.
- Integration with Cloud Services: Supports seamless operation across various cloud platforms.
Pricing and Deployment
The Gloo Gateway & Mesh Starter Pack is available on AWS Marketplace with pricing options such as a 12-month contract for $19,000 per cluster (up to 24 cores and 10M API calls with Bronze Level Support).
Additional Solutions
Solo.io also offers specialized solutions like the Gloo AI Gateway, which integrates AI-enabling features within Envoy Proxy and Kubernetes Gateway API. In summary, Gloo products by Solo.io are designed to secure, scale, simplify, and cost-effectively manage application networking in cloud-native environments, leveraging open-source technologies like Istio, Envoy, and Cilium.
Core Technology
Gloo Mesh Core, introduced by Solo.io, is a significant advancement in service mesh technology, aimed at simplifying and accelerating enterprise adoption. Key aspects include:
SLA-Backed Support
Provides reliable and consistent support for both Istio and Cilium.
Lifecycle Management
Offers intuitive capabilities for handling installation, upgrades, and patches of service mesh deployments, including long-term support images for extended Istio support.
Security Features
- Easy installation and layering on existing Istio deployments
- Customizable storage backends for data control
- FIPS-ready build of Istio for secure production environments
- Enterprise-grade Istio support led by Louis Ryan, the creator of Istio
Advanced Observability
- Streamlined diagnostics and a single comprehensive dashboard
- Root cause analysis and proactive issue resolution
- Telemetry-based health tracking using OpenTelemetry
- Seamless integration with existing monitoring tools
Platform Innovation
Supports Ambient Mesh, a novel architecture developed by Solo.io and Google, eliminating the need for sidecars in each application. This results in significant cost savings and reduced overhead management.
Extensibility
Users can easily upgrade from Gloo Mesh Core to Gloo Mesh Enterprise for larger workloads or additional features, including advanced policy controls and support for expanding multi-cluster setups. Gloo Mesh Core simplifies the complexities associated with open-source service mesh technologies, making adoption more accessible and manageable for enterprises.
Industry Peers
Gloo, associated with Solo.io, operates in the technology sector, specifically in service mesh, API management, and tech services. Key competitors and industry peers include:
Service Mesh and API Management
- Kong: API gateway and service mesh solutions provider
- Estimated annual revenue: $118M
- Employees: 663
- Envoy: Service mesh competitor
- Estimated annual revenue: $33.8M
- Employees: 135
- Ambassador: Service mesh and API gateway provider
- Estimated annual revenue: $96M
- Employees: 640
- Traefik: Smaller competitor in the service mesh arena
- Estimated annual revenue: $3.6M
- Employees: 31
API Management
- Amazon API Gateway: AWS service for creating, publishing, maintaining, monitoring, and securing APIs
- Apigee API Management: Google Cloud service for designing, implementing, and managing APIs
- WSO2 API Manager: Comprehensive solution for designing, implementing, and managing APIs
Broader Tech Services
While not direct competitors, other companies in the broader tech services industry include Coursera, Riot Games, and HERE Holding Corporation. Gloo's primary competition comes from companies offering similar solutions in the service mesh and API management sectors. The landscape is competitive, with various players offering unique features and capabilities to address the growing demand for efficient, secure, and scalable application networking solutions in cloud-native environments.