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Sidecar proxies cost us real memory per pod. Do ambient and Cilium-style meshes actually remove that cost, and what do they trade?

Yes, the proxy moves: one L4 agent per node, eBPF in-kernel, waypoints only where L7 policy demands. The scored answer quantifies the sidecar bill, compares where each architecture lands the proxy, and names migration risks.

Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in researched DevOps, SRE and platform engineering interview loops, written to a senior-engineer editorial bar, and never padded to hit a word count.

Yes, the proxy moves: one L4 agent per node, eBPF in-kernel, waypoints only where L7 policy demands. The scored answer quantifies the sidecar bill, compares where each architecture lands the proxy, and names migration risks.

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