Asticou Ingress Gateway Launches as Source-Available Successor to Ingress NGINX

Source-available Kubernetes ingress controller designed as a modern replacement for Ingress NGINX, supporting over 50 NGINX annotations for compatibility.

MCLEAN, VA, UNITED STATES, January 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 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

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
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
# 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

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
• GitHub: https://github.com/asticou/asticou-ingress-gateway
• 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
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
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
For press inquiries, benchmark details, or interview requests:
Email: public@asticouisland.com
Supplementary Materials are available in github
• 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

Greg Schueman
Asticou Island LLC
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