Frequently Asked Questions

As a self-service engineering platform, Meshery enables collaborative design and operation of cloud and cloud native infrastructure.

Meshery is an open source, highly extensible, vendor neutral project, created for the world of AI and remote knowledge workers.

Yes, as a management plane, Meshery provides value in a number of ways post-adoption Kubernetes. For example, Meshery analyzes your deployments in evaluation of cloud native best practices and patterns, highlighting where you might be deviating.

Meshery performs deep discovery of your environment and currently running applications and infrastructure.

Yes, Meshery is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project and is licensed under Apache v2.

As the cloud native management plane, Meshery is an extensible platform, offering multiple extension points within which users and partners can customize and extend Meshery's functionality.

Yes, Meshery can be deployed on-premises in minutes using the installation method of your choice.

The Cloud Native Playground (aka Meshery Playground) is a managed instance of Meshery that offers a sandbox environment in which half of Kanvas^BETA functionality is enabled (Designer mode) and the other half of Kanvas^BETA functionality is disabled (Visualizer mode).

The sandbox environment is not connected to an active Kuberentes cluster, and as such, specific actions within Kanvas Designer are also disabled. Meshery and Kanvas are feature-rich, sophisticated management applications for cloud native infrastructure. To access their full set of capabilities, simply deploy your own copy of Meshery into the environment of your choosing.

All of the designs that you have created in the Meshery Playground are saved to your user account and will be available to you each time that you return to the Playground. The designs will also be available in your other Meshery deployments.

Yes, Meshery can be deployed on-premises with a single command to download, install, and run your own instance of Meshery in your environment.

Yes, Meshery is not just an application. Meshery is an extensible platform. Customize Meshery using any of its purpose-built extension points.

It is a set of microservices where the central component is itself called Meshery. Integrators may extend Meshery by taking advantage of designated Extension Points. Extension points come in various forms and are available through Meshery’s architecture.

Become a Layer5 partner or simply submit an integration proposal.

Multiple Meshery GitHub Actions help you integrate your Kubernetes operations and configuration management into a versioned, pipelined, declarative workflow. These GitHub Actions apply conformance to cloud native standards and performance management gates into your pipelines.

Meshery connects your GitHub repositories and imports your Kubernetes manifests, your Helm Charts, and your Docker Compose applications for visualization and configuration management using Meshery's advanced feature set.

Layer5 Cloud is hosted on AWS and Equinix data centers in US-based regions. If you need to know more about the data storage and compliance, please reach out to us at privacy@layer5.io

Layer5 Cloud is hosted on AWS and Equinix data centers in US-based regions. If you need to know more about the data storage and compliance, please reach out to us at hello@layer5.io

Yes, Layer5 Cloud and Kanvas can be deployed on-premises in minutes using Helm charts.

A one-time export of your data can be requested as you transition from managed Layer5 Cloud to self-hosted Layer5 Cloud.

With a small number of manual steps, air-gapped deployments to run Meshery without internet access is also supported.

Yes, all of Layer5's projects are licensed under Apache v2.

Layer5 also offers extensions to the Meshery project in which Enterprise-grade functionality is commercially offered and supported.

As a member of one of Layer5's GitHub organizations, your user account is entitled with triage level permissions across all repositories in the org. You are expected to engage where the topic strikes your interest, triaging (assigning, clarifying, labeling, qualifying) any issue you feel comfortable doing so. You are encouraged to review any open pull request and offer feedback to or ask questions to the author.

Layer5 has a number of GitHub organziations in which it's projects are advanced. See the repository overview below.

The Layer5 community expects you to get as much or more out of your time than you give to the projects. We expect earnest effort from its contributors. What “earnest effort” means is different for each community member as all have different circumstances. Suffice to say, the more you put into your efforts, the greater your reward will be. Most community contributors stay with the project for many months, if not indefinitely. Length of involvement is entirely up to the individual community member. You can expect to be challenged, to be assisted, to learn, to be recognized for your effort and to have your contributions appreciated.

As a member of the Layer5 community, you are expected to be a good representative of Layer5's cultures and values of helping fellow members and paying it forward as we all learn together. You are expected to offer your ideas and skills to help advance our community and its projects. You are expected to share your experiences with others, to be curious, to be helpful, to ask questions, to challenge others and to be challenged yourself, to spread the word about what we collectively do here, to invite new members, to learn, to share, to make friends, to build a network, to write blog posts, to tweet, to become maintainers, to become MeshMates, to earn an internship, to get hired by Layer5 - - any and all of these things.

We might not get to everyone, but we try to elevate the works of all of our contributors. All of our community members are proud of their work and so are we! We want their work and names to be recognized across our collective technology industry. Make sure that you follow and engage with the Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts.

Yes! Some community members join to code open source projects, others jump in to put those projects to use, some are here to help cultivate and steward our community, while others are here just to hangout and absorb. All members are most welcome. Make sure that you introduce yourself in the Layer5 Slack and let other community members get acquainted with you and vice-versa.

Yes, Kanvas is available both as a hosted solution and is also deployable on-premises as a self-hosted solution.

Kanvas can be self-hosted to keep your designs and applications internal to your premises. You can also choose to have Kanvas hosted as SaaS solution offered by Layer5.

Whether self-hosted or hosted by Layer5, we are here to support you.

Kanvas is available in beta today. Visit https://kanvas.new to use it.

Kanvas is cloud native collaboration tool for managing your infrastructure and applications. Kanvas has two modes: Visualizer for operating your actively running Kubernetes clusters and Designer for configuring your Kubernetes clusters and creating your creating your application deployments.

Yes, upgrade at anytime.

Add new packages at any time.

You might choose to add another package when your monthly active learner count is consistently over your existing package size.

No. The Free plan does not require a credit card. It is free and will forever be free.

A credit card is required only if you want to upgrade to a more fully-featured plan.

We totally get that plans can change, and we're here to make things as straight-forward as possible. At Layer5, we have a no-refund policy for all our subscription plans. That means once your payment goes through, it's non-refundable, even if you haven't used much of the time left in your billing cycle. This helps us keep delivering awesome access to our cloud native tools, collaborative features, performance testing, multi-cloud setups, and all the learning goodies in Layer5 Academy and Kanvas.

If you're ready to cancel, no worries — just head to your account settings to cancel anytime. That'll stop any future renewals and charges, but you'll still enjoy full access until your current period ends. We're all about helping you explore first, so feel free to try our Free Forever plan to dip your toes in with things like built-in models, community support, and basic testing before going paid.

Yes! You are more than welcome to try the Free version.

If you and your team want to collaborate or need more advanced capabilities, then try the Enterprise Edition. To upgrade to Enterprise, please get in touch with us.

Your account will automatically transition to the Free plan. Layer5 Cloud and Kanvas will continue to operate under the Free tier features and usage limits.

While your account will no longer be entitled to the features offered a paid plan, rest assured that your historical data will continue to be available to you.

Renew your subscription to have higher-level plan features reenabled at any time.

Both annual and monthly plans are available. Some plans have add-ons available.

If your level of use warrants custom pricing, let's talk adjust as needed.

Yes, we offer significant discounts for open source projects. Visit open source pricing page and sign up with details of your open source project to apply for discount.

Layer5 Academy is available as an add-on to your Enterprise subscription, priced based on number of active learners.

Academy functionality is conveniently divided into two offerings: theoretical learning (learning paths, certifications, challenges) and practical learning (hands-on labs in Kanvas).

An active learner is any user who has logged into the platform in a given month whether they are currently enrolled in a course or not. Only active learners count towards your package total. Only active learners are billable.

A learner is any user who at any point accepted an invitation to join your Academy. Learners may or may not have registered for (enrolled in) any of your Academy's offerings.

An enrolled learner is a user who is currently registered for an offering in your Academy's catalog of curricula. Enrolled learners not are always active learners as students may enroll in a course but not log in during a given month.

Yes, whether you are currently subscribed under a monthly plan or a yearly plan, you can exceed your pre-selected package size without foreplanning.

At the end of the month, any additional learners beyond your package size are charged at the same per-learner rate.

For example, if you are on the 500-learner package and end the month with 510 active learners, you will be charged for your base 500 learners plus the cost of 10 additional learners.

You are simply billed for the number of learners under your selected plan size at the end of the month; e.g. 2,500 multiplied by the per-learner price in your subscription plan.

Active learners are determined as the higher of your active learners or your plan's quota. For example, on the 500 learner plan, even if you have only 450 active learners, you will still be billed according to your plan size of 500 learners.

Active learners are calculated at the end of each monthly billing cycle. For example, if you are subscribed to the 1,000 learner plan, have 900 active learners on the 1st of the month, 450 active learners on the 11th of the month, and 1,025 active learners on the 17th of the month, you will be billed for 1,025 active learners (1,025 times the per learner price in your subscription plan) as that is your highest count of active learners during the month.

No. Only users who are actively registered and have not yet completed or withdrawn from a course are counted as active users.

Yes, upgrade at anytime.

Upgraded pricing takes immediate effect with the remainder of your billing cycle prorated at your new, lower per learner rate.

You can pay for Layer5 Team and Enterprise with a credit card or debit card. If you pay by credit card, billing receipts are available to Administrators for previous months under Billing History. For copies of your invoice, email Layer5 billing.

Layer5 also offers invoicing (ACH or wire). If you pay by ACH or wire, invoices are emailed to the billing email addresses near the 10th business day of each month. If you need an additional copy, email Layer5 billing. Details on where to remit payment can be found on the invoice. To change your payment method, contact your Customer Success Manager.

After an initial failed payment, we apply a 14 day grace period on your account and attempt to process a payment each week. After three failed payments, paid features are locked.

You can unlock the paid features on your account and trigger a new payment attempt by updating the payment method on your account. To learn more about how to manage your payments, visit the Billing section of your Layer5 Cloud account.

The billing cycle begins the first day of the subscription period.

Layer5 meters the count of active users and systems under management on a daily basis. The billable count of users and elements under management is calculated at the end of the month using the maximum count (high water mark) of the lower 99 percent of usage for those days.

Layer5 excludes the top 1% to reduce the impact of spikes in usage on your bill. The billable count of active users and elements under management is based on the average number of elements for the month. See your Usage in Layer5 Cloud. Billing pages are only accessible to users with the Org Billing Admin role.

You can view your account's subscription, your other paid features and products, and your next billing date in your account's billing settings

Great question, and we're happy to clarify! For yearly subscriptions (which often come at a nice discount compared to monthly billing), we stick to the same no-refund policy. You'll have full-year access to all the cool stuff, including advanced service mesh courses, hands-on labs, multi-cluster management, and enterprise features.

If you cancel early, it just prevents the auto-renewal for the next billing cycle and you'll keep using everything until your paid term wraps up—no refunds for the remaining months. We designed it this way to support our ongoing platform improvements. If you're unsure, the Free Forever plan is a low-pressure way to check out the basics first!

To best position your candidacy for an internship with Layer5, engage in the community and its projects. Start contributing and keep contributing. Community members who consistently contribute are the first individuals to be awarded internships when new internship opportunities open up - particularly members who are making significantly impactful contributions.

Understand that internships are assigned as a recognition of work that you are already performing. They are not assigned in the hopes of you becoming a good contributor, but are awarded to support and reinforce efforts that you are already giving. Engage and make an impact on an area of a project. Show your passion for helping move the project forward, willingness to work hard, and capacity to learn.

Recognize that there are many hundreds of contributors and relatively few maintainers and MeshMates. If you don't get an immediate response, don't lose heart. Be tenacious and find a piece of one of the projects to be engaged with and advance.

Continuously. Layer5 has internships starting and stopping frequently. Some internships rigidly start and stop on particular dates, while other internships offered start as a batch of candidates show collective readiness. We work with individuals to align the timings of the internship with other activities in their life.

Interns that thrive at Layer5 are those that espouse the Layer5 culture of paying it forward. These interns freely help other contributors, understanding that 1) they learn as they teach and assist others, 2) their projects are furthered with more contributors engage, and 3) any contributors path to maintainership is one of enabling others.

Successful interns steward projects naturally as they become a resource to other contributors. These interns frequently become component and/or core maintainers.

Successful interns internalize the fact that the real value of engaging and contributing to projects is the experience gained. They understand that the experience is theirs for the taking and that project maintainers and Layer5 employees want you to seize the opportunity. We consider your success our success and embrace the concept that your meaningful engagement is to all our benefits.

Many Layer5 interns speak at large, public technology conferences like KubeCon, DockerCon, and so on. They write blog posts and share about their experience and learnings on social media. They engage with their whole self.

Many interns become open source maintainers, and have ongoing responsibility to steward Layer5 and CNCF projects.

Internships are offered based on our commitment to supporting individuals who make a meaningful impact in the community and on our projects. While experience in other projects is wonderful and can be helpful as individuals strive to contribute meaningfully here, it is not a determining factor in whether or not an internship is appropriate to award. The metric we use is whether the individual demonstrates a sustained and positive impact on the projects we steward. We extend support to anyone who achieves this, often in the form of an internship if it proves beneficial to the individual.

Nearly perpetually, yes.

In support of individuals making an impact in our open source projects, we hire individuals directly from our community.