The purpose of this article is to describe the differences between Airlock Gateway and Airlock Microgateway and how they can be combined for optimal synergy. The combination of both components allows different architectures which have their pros and cons. This article provides you with information to make a decision about which architecture is best for you.
Note that Airlock IAM is illustrated as a separate component outside Kubernetes to enhance clarity. This is not a requirement. Airlock IAM can also be deployed as a pod in Kubernetes and still serve both Airlock Gateway and Airlock Microgateway. However, with the focus on Airlock Microgateway, this aspect is not further discussed here.
Depending on your decision for the overall system architecture, an Airlock Gateway may or may not be positioned in front of the Kubernetes cluster. Almost all the rest of this manual focus only on the deployment of Airlock Microgateway inside the Kubernetes cluster (e.g., deployment in OpenShift or Kubernetes, with or without service mesh, ...) and does not discuss the placement nor functionality of the Airlock Gateway. This has been done to simplify the manual and does not imply any additional meaning.