How can Envoy implement circuit breaking?

Envoy implements circuit breaking by redirecting calls to alternative services when failure thresholds are exceeded. This mechanism is essential for maintaining the resilience of a microservice architecture. When a service experiences high failure rates, circuit breaking allows Envoy to stop sending requests to that service for a specified period. Instead, requests can be rerouted to a backup or alternative service that can handle the requests, thereby preventing the entire application from being impacted and allowing for a more graceful degradation in service.

This approach not only improves the overall reliability of the application but also helps to manage the load on failing services, giving them time to recover without exacerbating their problems with additional requests. Establishing failure thresholds allows Envoy to make informed decisions based on real-time performance, ensuring that the system operates smoothly even under adverse conditions. By implementing this method, Envoy supports a robust and fault-tolerant architecture commonly used in cloud-native applications.