introducing zrok; first draft

website/blog/introducing_zrok.md

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+# Introducing zrok
+
+I'm fortunate that I've had the opportunity to work on many interesting projects throughout my career. I was one of the original developers who broke ground on the OpenZiti project back in 2017. I had the opportunity to work deep in the core design for OpenZiti, and a lot of the core ideas came from work I did directly.
+
+For the last six months, I've had the opportunity to come at the world of Zero Trust and next generation networking from the other end. I've been working on a set of user-focused tools that aim to streamline sharing by making the network both secure, and invisible.
+
+This new project is called... `zrok`.
+
+`zrok` focuses on streamlining sharing for both developers and end users alike. `zrok` takes inspiration from a number of other offerings that focus on streamlining developer endpoint sharing. Starting from that recipe, `zrok` adds a number of powerful capabilities that are made possible by building on the foundation provided by OpenZiti. 
+
+Here are some of the things that make `zrok` different...
+
+## Private Sharing
+
+Most of the offerings in this space allow you to easily create "tunnels" that allow outbound-only access to local HTTP resources without punching any holes in a firewall. These tools make these kinds of tunnels effortless to create; a single command and you've got a public URL that you can share to allow access to your endpoint.
+
+`zrok` expands on this model by supporting something that we're calling "private sharing". You'll share your resources using a single command, but your resources will be privately shared on an OpenZiti network, where they can be securely accessed with a single `zrok` command by other users.
+
+In this model, nobody ever has to enable any inbound access from untrusted users. All network access is handled through a secure, zero trust overlay network. And to make it even simpler, `zrok` handles all of the control plane management of the overlay network. This secure sharing model remains the single-command affair that users have come to expect.
+
+## Files; Repositories; Video... Decentralized
+
+Most of the other offerings in this space have focused on sharing network resources. These tools are often used by developers to allow local access to a private HTTP endpoint, or to facilitate a callback to a private endpoint through a webhook. It's considered table stakes for these tools to do this in a way that is _frictionless_.
+
+`zrok` also provides a frictionless experience for sharing these kinds of network resources. However, we're taking it a step further, though... `zrok` will also make this kind of frictionless, decentralized sharing possible for files, software repositories, video streams, and a number of other kinds of resources we haven't even thought of yet.
+
+Combine this kind of resource sharing with our private sharing model, and you've got the recipe for a number of very powerful decentralized services. Imagine using `zrok` as a decentralized, distributed replacement for large centralized file sharing platforms. Use it as a replacement for large, centralized video streaming platforms.
+
+We're still just getting started on building out these aspects of `zrok`. But as of this writing, `zrok` already provides built-in single-command file sharing. Combine that with private sharing and you can see this powerful model in action right now.
+
+## zrok.io
+
+NetFoundry is offering `zrok.io`, a managed service instance you can use to try out `zrok` and even run small production workloads. This service is currently in limited beta and is available through an invitation process until we're out of beta. Visit [zrok.io](https://zrok.io) for details about requesting an invite.
+
+`zrok.io` runs on top of the open source version of `zrok`. We've built out some scaffolding to make sure we can properly operationalize it, but it's the same code you can run in your own environments.
+
+## Open Source; Self-Host
+
+`zrok` is open source. You've got everything you need to host your own `zrok` instance on top of your own private OpenZiti network. We've even streamlined this process, and we're including a simple [guide](https://github.com/openziti/zrok/blob/main/docs/v0.3_self_hosting_guide.md) to getting this running in minutes, including the OpenZiti portions.
+
+## A Start
+
+I'm really excited about sharing `zrok` with you. As of this writing, we're at `v0.3.0`, and there is still a ton of work to do to get `zrok` to where I know it can go. `zrok` is open source, and we're going to be developing it in public, just like the rest of the OpenZiti products.
+
+We'd love your participation! You can find us on Github at [https://github.com/openziti/zrok](https://github.com/openziti/zrok).