Kyma Runtime Architecture — Kubernetes + Istio + SAP Eventing

Lesson 2.1 — Kyma Architecture & Core Components Table of Contents 1. Kyma vs Vanilla Kubernetes 2. Kyma Cluster Architecture 3. Istio Service Mesh in Kyma 4. Kyma API Gateway 5. Kyma Eventing Top 5 Pitfalls What to Learn Next Summary: SAP Kyma Runtime is a managed Kubernetes offering on BTP that adds an opinionated layer of components — Istio service mesh, NATS-based eventing, API Gateway, and the BTP Operator — on top of a standard K8s cluster. This lesson covers what Kyma adds versus vanilla Kubernetes, the modular architecture, Istio internals, API Gateway configuration, and eventing infrastructure. 1. Kyma vs Vanilla Kubernetes What Kyma Adds ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Kyma Runtime │ │ │ │ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ SAP-Managed Layer │ │ │ │ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌───────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ Istio │ │ Kyma API │ │ BTP Operator │ │ │ │ │ │ Service │ │ Gateway │ │ (ServiceInstance/ │ │ │ │ │ │ Mesh │ │ (API