Tigera

Welcome to the January 2026 edition of your Calico community update. From securing autonomous AI agents to mastering eBPF networking, here is the technical intelligence you need to scale in 2026.

This Month’s Top Stories

Join us at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026

March 23-26: We’re gearing up for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 2026 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Come chat with us for exciting Kubernetes networking and network security updates, and pick up some cool new Calico swag! Stay tuned for more details.

Securing Autonomous AI Agents in Production

March 23 | Save the Date: Join Tigera CTO Peter Kelly and tech industry leaders in Amsterdam for an exclusive, invite-only Lunch & Learn event focused on the control plane for governing autonomous agents.

This session moves past the AI hype to discuss the architectural constraints and security patterns required to run agentic systems in highly regulated enterprise environments.

Invitations opening soon.

Scaling Kubernetes Networking Without the Complexity

Feb 3 | Live Webinar: Learn how platform teams can move to an integrated approach that reduces risk, simplifies operations, and keeps Kubernetes from slowing the business. Join to see real-world scenarios that highlight why fragmented Kubernetes networking breaks down at scale.

Register Now

Key Insights from the 2025 GigaOm Radar for Container Networking

Feb 10 | Live Webinar: Join Tigera CMO, Utpal Bhatt, as he shares insights behind Calico’s leadership. Learn how Calico’s networking and security can help your teams improve security posture, simplify operations, and accelerate innovation

Register Now

Open Source

Calico v3.30.6 Patch Release

The latest patch release for Calico v3.30 focuses on:

Intelligent Resyncs: Faster IP set operations, reducing overhead during failures.
OpenStack: Independent compaction loops ensure more consistent performance.
Envoy Gateway: RBAC for topology injection, base image upgraded to v1.5.7.
IPVS Migration Blueprint: With IPVS deprecated in K8s v1.35, follow our guide to migrate to nftables.

View Full Release Notes

Coming Soon: Next-Gen Load Balancing

We’re introducing the Maglev algorithm to Calico Open Source to transform how you handle external traffic.

Consistent Hashing: Moves beyond random back-end selection to ensure traffic stays pinned to the right service.
High Availability: Scale your Calico nodes up or down without dropping existing external connections.
Seamless Failover: If a load-balancing node goes down, others pick up the connection instantly without disruption.
VIP Integration: Works natively with Calico Load Balancer IPAM via Virtual IPs (VIPs).

Watch the Maglev Deep Dive

Enhanced Logging & Observability

Customizable Logs: Calico network security resources provide a unique capability called “Log” which is now expanding to allow users to implement tier, policy, and namespace to each entry.
Rate Limiting: Control cloud costs with new LogActionRateLimit and LogActionRateLimitBurst configurations.
Expert Tip: Use Calico Whisker or the Goldman gRPC channel for real-time debugging without saturating your syslogs.

Get the Full Technical Briefing: Catch the replay of our January Community Meeting for a walkthrough of Maglev, the nftables migration, and our 2026 observability roadmap.

Watch the Community Meeting Replay

Connect with us on Slack for support and discussions, and explore our projects on GitHub:

Recent Releases: Calico Enterprise & Calico Cloud

December 1, 2025 - Calico Cloud 22.1.0
December 18, 2025 - Calico Enterprise 3.21.5

Upgrade today to benefit from the latest improvements and keep your environment running smoothly.

Skills, Certifications & Learning Resources

Advance Your eBPF Skills in 2026

Join thousands of engineers mastering cloud-native networking with Tigera Academy. Build hands-on eBPF expertise to troubleshoot performance issues and operate production-grade Kubernetes clusters with confidence.

➔ Start Your Certification Journey & Earn Your Badge

Become a Certified Calico Operator

From core fundamentals to advanced cloud integrations, our certification tracks help platform engineers validate real-world skills and become experts in Kubernetes networking and security.

➔ Explore All Certification Courses

Tutorials

Learn by doing. Our self-paced tutorials walk through real Kubernetes networking, security, and observability scenarios using Calico and open source tools.

➔ See Available Tutorials Here

Help Center

Your technical hub for Calico Cloud and Calico Enterprise. Find clear, actionable guidance to install, configure, and operate Calico in production environments.

➔ Access the Help Center Here

Build, Secure, and Scale: Your Resource Hub

Blog

Move Beyond the NGINX Ingress Controller: 5 Reasons to Switch
Read 5 Reasons to Switch to the Calico Ingress Gateway (and How to Migrate Smoothly) to explore why the retirement of Ingress NGINX is a strategic turning point for platform teams and what you can do next.

Secure Your Cluster Without Sidecars: Zero-Trust with Istio Ambient Mesh
Read Sidecarless mTLS in Kubernetes: How Istio Ambient Mesh and Ztunnel Enable Zero-Trust to explore how to achieve secure, encrypted communication without the overhead of per-pod proxies.

➔ Explore all blog posts

Guides

Mastering Kubernetes CNI: Networking Excellence from the Start – The right CNI is the backbone of your cluster. Learn how Container Network Interfaces manage pod connectivity and discover why choosing the right plugin is vital for performance and security. Read the guide.

Securing Microservices: A Blueprint for Kubernetes Protection – Microservices introduce new risks. Explore how to defend your distributed apps with identity-based security, encryption, and granular policies that stop threats in their tracks. Get the expert tips.

Technical Papers

Securing AI Workloads in Kubernetes – Learn the security patterns required to protect AI training and inference workloads in Kubernetes. Download the Datasheet.

Business Value of a Single Unified Platform – Explore how a unified approach to networking and security reduces risk and simplifies operations. Read the Whitepaper.

Egress Security Checklist – A guide to securing outbound traffic and preventing data exfiltration in enterprise environments. Get the Checklist.

➔ Explore all resources

Partners

February 19 | Joint Webinar: Discover how Mirantis and Tigera help you build scalable, fault-tolerant AI services using multi-cluster Kubernetes. Join us for practical insights and best practices you can apply immediately. Reserve your spot today.

IN THE NEWS

Explore recent Tigera news coverage:

AI and Enterprise Technology Predictions from Industry Experts for 2026 from Solutions Review
Interview With President & CEO Ratan Tipirneni About The Network Security And Observability Platform from Pulse 2.0
Experts Give 8 Big Data Predictions for 2026 from Database Trends & Applications

➔ To see all coverage and to read Tigera’s press releases, visit our Newsroom.

Our New Look: What Do You Think?

Notice anything different? You’ll notice some recent changes to our logos and design. We’ve evolved our brand to match the evolution of our platform: cleaner, faster, and built for scale. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new look—hit reply and let us know what you think!

That's all for this month! We're committed to making this newsletter your go-to source for cloud-native insights. What topics matter most to you right now? Send us your feedback and suggestions and help us make this newsletter your must-read resource every month.

– The Tigera Team

Tigera

Calico Newsletter – January 2026