# Ambient multi-network multicluster support is now Beta

DevFeed: [Ambient multi-network multicluster support is now Beta](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/ambient-multi-network-multicluster-support-is-now-beta-48810.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://istio.io/latest/blog/2026/ambient-multinetwork-multicluster-beta/>)

Author: Gustavo Meira (Microsoft), Mikhail Krinkin (Microsoft)

Published: 2026-02-18T00:00:00Z

Content type: release

Language: en

Sources: [Istio](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/istio-blog.md>)

Topics: [istio](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/istio.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/telemetry.md>), [Network](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/network.md>), [Protocol (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/protocol.md>), [reliability-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/reliability-engineering.md>)

Tags: [2026](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/2026.md>), [ambient](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ambient.md>), [beta](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/beta.md>), [clusters](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/clusters.md>), [connectivity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/connectivity.md>), [distributed-system](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/distributed-system.md>), [gateways](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gateways.md>), [istio](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/istio.md>), [mesh](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mesh.md>), [metrics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/metrics.md>), [microservices](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/microservices.md>), [multicluster](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multicluster.md>), [protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/protocol.md>), [release](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/release.md>), [reliability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reliability.md>), [services](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/services.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/telemetry.md>), [waypoint](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/waypoint.md>), [xds](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/xds.md>), [ztunnel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ztunnel.md>)

## AI overview

Istio 1.29 introduces Beta support for ambient multi-network multicluster deployments, with improved telemetry, peer metadata discovery, connectivity, and reliability across distributed clusters and networks.

## Source excerpt

Our team of contributors has been busy throughout the transition to 2026. A lot of work was done to get the multi-network multicluster for ambient to production ready state. Improvements were made in areas from our internal tests, up to the most popular multi-network multicluster asks in ambient, with a big focus on telemetry. Gaps in Telemetry The benefits of a multicluster distributed system are not without their tradeoffs. Some complexity is inevitable with larger scale, making good telemetry even more important. The Istio team understands that point and we were aware of some gaps that needed to be covered. Thankfully, on release 1.29, telemetry is now more robust and complete when our ambient data plane operates over distributed clusters and networks. If you've deployed alpha multicluster capabilities before in multi-network scenarios, you might have noticed some source or destination labels would show as "unknown". For context, in a local cluster (or clusters sharing the same network), waypoint and ztunnel are aware of all existing endpoints, and they acquire that information through xDS. Confusing metrics instead often occur in multi-network deployments where, given all the information that needs to be replicated across separate networks, the xDS peer discovery is unpractical. Unfortunately, that results in missing peer information when requests traverse network boundaries to reach a different Istio cluster. Telemetry Enhancements Overcoming that problem, Istio 1.29 now ships with augmented discovery mechanisms in its data plane for exchanging peer metadata between endpoints and gateways sitting across different networks. The HBONE protocol is now enriched with baggage headers, allowing for waypoint and ztunnel to exchange peer information transparently through east-west gateways. Diagram showing peer metadata exchange across different networks In the diagram above, focusing on L7 metrics, we show how the peer metadata flows through baggage headers across diff