Add blog post for Gateway API v0.5.0 beta

Co-authored-by: Rob Scott <[email protected]>

Author: shaneutt

content/en/blog/_posts/2022-07-13-gateway-api-in-beta.md

@@ -0,0 +1,178 @@
+---
+layout: blog
+title: Kubernetes Gateway API Graduates to Beta
+date: 2022-07-13
+slug: gateway-api-graduates-to-beta
+canonicalUrl: https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/blog/2022/graduating-to-beta/
+---
+
+**Authors:** Shane Utt (Kong), Rob Scott (Google), Nick Young (VMware), Jeff Apple (HashiCorp)
+
+We are excited to announce the v0.5.0 release of Gateway API. For the first
+time, several of our most important Gateway API resources are graduating to
+beta. Additional, we are starting a new initiative to explore how Gateway API
+can be used for mesh and introducing new experimental concepts such as URL
+rewrites. We'll cover all of this and more below.
+
+## What is Gateway API?
+
+Gateway API is a collection of resources centered around [Gateway][gw] resources
+(which represent the underlying network gateways / proxy servers) to enable
+robust Kubernetes service networking through expressive, extensible and
+role-oriented interfaces that are implemented by many vendors and have broad
+industry support.
+
+Originally conceived as a successor to the well known [Ingress][ing] API, the
+benefits of Gateway API include (but are not limited to) explicit support for
+many commonly used networking protocols (e.g. `HTTP`, `TLS`, `TCP`, `UDP`) as
+well as tightly integrated support for Transport Layer Security (TLS). The
+`Gateway` resource in particular enables implementations to manage the lifecycle
+of network gateways as a Kubernetes API.
+
+If you're an end-user interested in some of the benefits of Gateway API we
+invite you to jump in and find an implementation that suits you. At the time of
+this release there are over a dozen [implementations][impl] for popular API
+gateways and service meshes and guides are available to start exploring quickly.
+
+[gw]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/api-types/gateway/
+[ing]:https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubernetes-api/service-resources/ingress-v1/
+[impl]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/implementations/
+
+### Getting started
+
+Gateway API is an official Kubernetes API like
+[Ingress](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/ingress/).
+Gateway API represents a superset of Ingress functionality, enabling more
+advanced concepts. Similar to Ingress, there is no default implementation of
+Gateway API built into Kubernetes. Instead, there are many different
+[implementations][impl] available, providing significant choice in terms of underlying
+technologies while providing a consistent and portable experience.
+
+Take a look at the [API concepts documentation][concepts] and check out some of
+the [Guides][guides] to start familiarizing yourself with the APIs and how they
+work. When you're ready for a practical application open the [implementations
+page][impl] and select an implementation that belongs to an existing technology
+you may already be familiar with or the one your cluster provider uses as a
+default (if applicable). Gateway API is a [Custom Resource Definition
+(CRD)][crd] based API so you'll need to [install the CRDs][install-crds] onto a
+cluster to use the API.
+
+If you're specifically interested in helping to contribute to Gateway API, we
+would love to have you! Please feel free to [open a new issue][issue] on the
+repository, or join in the [discussions][disc]. Also check out the [community
+page][community] which includes links to the Slack channel and community meetings.
+
+[crd]:https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/extend-kubernetes/custom-resources/custom-resource-definitions/
+[concepts]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/concepts/api-overview/
+[guides]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/guides/getting-started/
+[impl]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/implementations/
+[install-crds]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/guides/getting-started/#install-the-crds
+[issue]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/issues/new/choose
+[disc]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/discussions
+[community]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/contributing/community/
+
+## Release highlights
+
+### Graduation to beta
+
+The `v0.5.0` release is particularly historic because it marks the growth in
+maturity to a beta API version (`v1beta1`) release for some of the key APIs:
+
+- [GatewayClass](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/api-types/gatewayclass/)
+- [Gateway](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/api-types/gateway/)
+- [HTTPRoute](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/api-types/httproute/)
+
+This achievement was marked by the completion of several graduation criteria:
+
+- API has been [widely implemented][impl].
+- Conformance tests provide basic coverage for all resources and have multiple implementations passing tests.
+- Most of the API surface is actively being used.
+- Kubernetes SIG Network API reviewers have approved graduation to beta.
+
+For more information on Gateway API versioning, refer to the [official
+documentation](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/concepts/versioning/). To see
+what's in store for future releases check out the [next steps](#next-steps)
+section.
+
+[impl]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/implementations/
+
+### Release channels
+
+This release introduces the `experimental` and `standard` [release channels][ch]
+which enable a better balance of maintaining stability while still enabling
+experimentation and iterative development.
+
+The `standard` release channel includes:
+
+- resources that have graduated to beta
+- fields that have graduated to standard (no longer considered experimental)
+
+The `experimental` release channel includes everything in the `standard` release
+channel, plus:
+
+- `alpha` API resources
+- fields that are considered experimental and have not graduated to `standard` channel
+
+Release channels are used internally to enable iterative development with
+quick turnaround, and externally to indicate feature stability to implementors
+and end-users.
+
+For this release we've added the following experimental features:
+
+- [Routes can attach to Gateways by specifying port numbers](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-957/)
+- [URL rewrites and path redirects](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/geps/gep-726/)
+
+[ch]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/concepts/versioning/#release-channels-eg-experimental-standard
+
+### Other improvements
+
+For an exhaustive list of changes included in the `v0.5.0` release, please see
+the [v0.5.0 release notes](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/tag/v0.5.0).
+
+## Gateway API for service mesh: the GAMMA Initiative
+Some service mesh projects have [already implemented support for the Gateway
+API](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/implementations/). Significant overlap
+between the Service Mesh Interface (SMI) APIs and the Gateway API has [inspired
+discussion in the SMI
+community](https://github.com/servicemeshinterface/smi-spec/issues/249) about
+possible integration.
+
+We are pleased to announce that the service mesh community, including
+representatives from Cilium Service Mesh, Consul, Istio, Kuma, Linkerd, NGINX
+Service Mesh and Open Service Mesh, is coming together to form the [GAMMA
+Initiative](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/contributing/gamma/), a dedicated
+workstream within the Gateway API subproject focused on Gateway API for Mesh
+Management and Administration.
+
+This group will deliver [enhancement
+proposals](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/v1beta1/contributing/gep/) consisting
+of resources, additions, and modifications to the Gateway API specification for
+mesh and mesh-adjacent use-cases.
+
+This work has begun with [an exploration of using Gateway API for
+service-to-service
+traffic](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T_DtMQoq2tccLAtJTpo3c0ohjm25vRS35MsestSL9QU/edit#heading=h.jt37re3yi6k5)
+and will continue with enhancement in areas such as authentication and
+authorization policy.
+
+## Next steps
+
+As we continue to mature the API for production use cases, here are some of the highlights of what we'll be working on for the next Gateway API releases:
+
+- [GRPCRoute][gep1016] for [gRPC][grpc] traffic routing
+- [Route delegation][pr1085]
+- Layer 4 API maturity: Graduating [TCPRoute][tcpr], [UDPRoute][udpr] and
+  [TLSRoute][tlsr] to beta
+- [GAMMA Initiative](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/contributing/gamma/) - Gateway API for Service Mesh
+
+If there's something on this list you want to get involved in, or there's
+something not on this list that you want to advocate for to get on the roadmap
+please join us in the #sig-network-gateway-api channel on Kubernetes Slack or our weekly [community calls](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/contributing/community/#meetings).
+
+[gep1016]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/blob/master/site-src/geps/gep-1016.md
+[grpc]:https://grpc.io/
+[pr1085]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/pull/1085
+[tcpr]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/blob/main/apis/v1alpha2/tcproute_types.go
+[udpr]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/blob/main/apis/v1alpha2/udproute_types.go
+[tlsr]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/blob/main/apis/v1alpha2/tlsroute_types.go
+[community]:https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/contributing/community/