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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Asticou Ingress Gateway: Open-Source Kubernetes Ingress Controller Available Now
Asticou Ingress Gateway: Open-Source Kubernetes Ingress Controller Available Now
Source-available successor to Ingress NGINX with Gateway API v1.4.0 support and 50+ NGINX annotation compatibility
JANUARY 1, 2026 — Asticou Island LLC today announced the public source-available release of Asticou Ingress Gateway, a high-performance, Kubernetes-native ingress controller built as a modern successor to Ingress NGINX. The project is available under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2) with Apache 2.0 for example code and provides a production-ready alternative with full compatibility for 50+ NGINX Ingress annotations.
Why Now? Ingress NGINX is Reaching End-of-Life
Why Now? Ingress NGINX is Reaching End-of-Life
The Ingress NGINX project, which powers ingress traffic for millions of Kubernetes clusters worldwide, is in maintenance mode with security updates only. Combined with recent CVE-2025-1974 vulnerabilities, enterprises are actively seeking a modern replacement.
Asticou addresses this gap with a purpose-built Java/Netty implementation featuring:
Drop-in compatibility with 50+ Ingress annotations (HTTPRoute routing, session affinity, canary deployments)
Modern Gateway API built on Gateway API v1.4.0 standard
High performance benchmarks comparable to other modern ingress controllers on similar hardware
Zero-downtime reloads for configuration updates without service disruption
Kubernetes-native design with full support for virtual hosting, path-based routing, and TLS termination
Production-ready with comprehensive metrics, health checking, and operational observability
Availability & Licensing
Availability & Licensing
Asticou Ingress Gateway is available immediately under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2) with Apache 2.0 for example code. This source-available model provides transparency, auditability, and the ability to review and modify the codebase while supporting the continued development of the project.
For licensing inquiries, feature assessment, or commercial deployment questions, please contact: licensing@asticouisland.com
Commercial pricing and enterprise support tiers will be announced with the formal 1.0.0 GA release.
Getting Started
Getting Started
# Deploy with Helm (preferred)
helm install asticou asticou/asticou-ingress-gateway \
--namespace ingress-system \
--create-namespace
# View full documentation
https://github.com/asticou-public/asticou-ingress-gateway
Technical Highlights
Technical Highlights
Performance Characteristics (RC1)
Asticou's engine uses Java 25 Virtual Threads and Netty with io_uring support (Linux 5.9+). In internal end-to-end benchmarks on like-for-like hardware, the 1.0.0-rc1 build benchmarks comparably to NGINX Ingress and other modern ingress controllers, typically showing small (2–4%) improvements in throughput and latency once warmed up. Actual RPS, latency, and memory usage depend heavily on workload and environment.
Feature Parity
50+ NGINX Ingress annotations supported with full compatibility:
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rate-limit
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-buffering
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-cors
...and 46 more
Enterprise-Grade Operations
License validation against Asticou KeyMaster service in commercial versions
Feature gating at runtime (no binary tricks)
Graceful degradation (features unavailable never crash)
7-day offline grace period for resilience
Community & Support
Community & Support
Discussions: GitHub Discussions for community Q&A
Discord: Community chat (link on GitHub)
Documentation: Full installation, configuration, and migration guides
Licensing Inquiries: licensing@asticouisland.com
Adoption Target
Adoption Target
Asticou is positioned for adoption by enterprises and cloud-native teams facing:
Ingress NGINX EOL (March 2026)
Security compliance requirements (CVE-2025-1974 and future advisories)
Modern Kubernetes standards (Gateway API adoption)
Desire for source-available, auditable infrastructure code
About Asticou Island LLC
About Asticou Island LLC
Asticou Island LLC develops cloud infrastructure software with a focus on performance, compatibility, and developer experience. The company's mission is to build the next generation of infrastructure tools that exceed Kubernetes-era requirements.
Website: https://www.asticouisland.com
GitHub: https://github.com/asticou-public
Media Contact
Media Contact
For press inquiries, benchmark details, or interview requests:
Email: public@asticouisland.com
Supplementary Materials
Supplementary Materials
Migration Guide: MIGRATION_FROM_NGINX.md
Architecture Whitepaper: ARCHITECTURE.md
GitHub Repository: https://github.com/asticou-public/asticou-ingress-gateway
Asticou Ingress Gateway is available under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2) with Apache 2.0 for example code.
For licensing questions or commercial inquiries: licensing@asticouisland.com
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