• eBPF enables safe kernel-level visibility with ＜5% overhead—no restarts, no kernel modules—through verifier-checked programs attached to thousands of kernel hooks (syscalls, network events, scheduler) • Cilium processes 10M packets/sec vs iptables 1-2M packets/sec by replacing linear rule evaluation with eBPF hash table lookups and XDP programs at network driver level • Pixie auto-instruments HTTP, gRPC, DNS, and database protocols by hooking syscalls in kernel space—sees application traffic without code changes or language agents • Falco detects runtime threats (spawned shells, file access anomalies) through kernel-level syscall monitoring that catches attacks traditional application tools miss • Start with low-risk tools (Parca for profiling, Falco for security alerts), verify Linux 5.0+ kernel version, avoid CNI replacement until you have specific network performance needs