# Microsoft Releases MCP Gateway to Operationalize Model Context Protocol on Kubernetes

> Open-source infrastructure component addresses session consistency and security for stateful AI agents in production environments.

**Published:** July 27, 2025
**Author:** Editorial Team
**Category:** stack

**Tags:** Microsoft, Kubernetes, Model Context Protocol, AI Infrastructure, DevOps, Open Source

**Canonical URL:** https://pseedr.com/stack/microsoft-releases-mcp-gateway-to-operationalize-model-context-protocol-on-kuber

---

As the Model Context Protocol (MCP) gains traction as the industry standard for connecting Large Language Models (LLMs) to external data and tools, engineering teams are encountering significant friction when moving from local testing to scaled deployment. While MCP functions effectively over standard input/output (stdio) in local environments, operationalizing it over HTTP in a distributed system introduces complexity regarding state management. Microsoft’s new MCP Gateway attempts to resolve this by providing a reverse proxy and management layer specifically architected for Kubernetes.

At the core of the release is what Microsoft describes as "session-aware state routing". In standard Kubernetes deployments, ingress controllers typically distribute traffic using round-robin algorithms, which are unsuitable for long-running, context-heavy AI interactions. If a user's follow-up prompt is routed to a different server instance than their initial query, the context window is broken. The MCP Gateway mitigates this by implementing sticky sessions based on a `session_id`, ensuring that requests are "consistently directed to the same MCP server instance". This allows organizations to utilize Kubernetes StatefulSets and headless services to manage scaling without sacrificing the continuity required for complex agentic workflows.

The architecture utilizes a dual-plane approach to separate concerns. The Control Plane exposes a RESTful API responsible for the lifecycle management of MCP servers, handling tasks such as instance provisioning and health checks. Simultaneously, the Data Plane manages the actual communication flow, supporting Server-Sent Events (SSE) and streaming HTTP connections. This separation allows for independent scaling of management logic and data throughput, a necessary feature for high-volume enterprise applications.

Security integration appears to be a primary driver for this architectural design. The gateway integrates directly with Azure Entra ID to provide OAuth 2.0 authentication. This enables "fine-grained access control" over AI tools, a critical requirement for enterprises exposing sensitive internal APIs to LLMs. By offloading authentication to the gateway, developers can deploy MCP servers without embedding complex security logic directly into the agent code.

However, the implementation reveals a distinct ecosystem bias. The reliance on Azure Entra ID and the provision of Azure Bicep templates for deployment suggests that while the software is open-source, it is highly opinionated toward the Microsoft cloud stack. Organizations running on AWS or Google Cloud Platform may face integration overhead, specifically regarding the substitution of the authentication provider, which is currently tightly coupled to Microsoft’s identity services.

Furthermore, the gateway enters a market already populated by established API management solutions like Kong and Nginx, which support SSE and sticky sessions but lack specific optimizations for the MCP standard. Microsoft’s value proposition relies on the gateway’s protocol specificity—it is not a generic load balancer but a specialized tool for the MCP ecosystem. This release signals that Microsoft views MCP not merely as a client-side convenience for tools like Cursor or VS Code, but as a viable backend protocol for scalable, cloud-native AI applications.

---

## Sources

- https://github.com/microsoft/mcp-gateway
