Kubernetes is the backbone of modern application deployment, but its networking demands have outgrown traditional Ingress. This talk introduces the Kubernetes Gateway API—a robust, future-ready standard—and NGINX Gateway Fabric, its powerful implementation. We’ll examine Ingress’s constraints and then highlight Gateway API’s strengths: multi-protocol support, precise traffic management, and extensibility for complex scenarios like cross-namespace routing and service mesh integration. Through practical use cases, we’ll demonstrate how NGINX Gateway Fabric enhances performance and flexibility. We’ll also address the coexistence of Ingress and Gateway API, offering guidance on adoption and monitoring. Join us in understanding this shift and preparing for Kubernetes networking’s next chapter.