KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2024

Sidecar containers are a powerful Kubernetes design pattern, running alongside the main application within the same pod to provide supporting features like observability, configuration and communication. However, sidecars can be resource-intensive, adding up to high CPU, memory and network bandwidth usage. WebAssembly (Wasm) offers a solution with its low resource usage and minimal memory footprint compared to Linux containers. Its quick start-up time enables scale-to-zero capability, making it a perfect fit for sidecar containers. The Containerd Runwasi project extends the sidecar pattern by enabling Kubernetes-native deployment and management of Wasm workloads.This talk will show how you can get started deploying Wasm sidecars to support your primary services with additional functionality. It will conclude with a demo of integrating these Wasm sidecars with your existing sidecar framework, whether that be Service Mesh or Dapr. Tune in to see Wasm sidecars on Kubernetes!