MCP gateways: what category fit means for IAM and AI governance

TL;DR: MCP gateway evaluation is splitting into four categories, and Stacklok argues that the right choice depends less on feature checklists than on deployment model, identity binding, governance scope, and supply-chain controls. The core issue is not MCP support alone, but whether the gateway can preserve real identity, auditability, and policy across both LLM and tool traffic.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Stacklok: How to Choose an MCP Gateway

By the numbers:

• NHIs outnumber human identities by 25x to 50x in modern enterprises.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams choose between different MCP gateway categories?

A: Start with governance scope, deployment constraints, and identity model rather than feature count.

Q: Why does identity binding matter so much for MCP traffic?

A: Because key-based access tells you a request was authenticated, but not whether it can be cleanly attributed, recertified, or revoked in lifecycle terms.

Q: What breaks when MCP governance is added after deployment?

A: Retrofitting control usually means unwinding over-broad credentials, rebuilding approval logic, and rediscovering where sensitive data can flow.

Practitioner guidance

• Classify the gateway before comparing features Decide whether you are evaluating a point solution, platform add-on, API gateway extension, or integrated AI control plane.
• Require claim-centric identity propagation Verify that every LLM and MCP request carries real user or named-agent identity from your IdP.
• Make server provenance a gating control Insist on curated server registries, signed artifacts, and runtime blocking of unapproved MCP servers.

What's in the full article

Stacklok's full blog post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• Deployment-model trade-offs across self-hosted, in-VPC, air-gapped, and appliance-style options.
• Evaluation checklists for comparing claim-centric identity, audit propagation, and policy inheritance across gateway categories.
• Operational guidance on curated server registries, provenance verification, and onboarding new teams or agents.
• Category-specific fit questions for platform teams that need to decide whether MCP belongs in an existing control plane or a dedicated one.

👉 Read Stacklok's guide to choosing the right MCP gateway category →

MCP gateways: what category fit means for IAM and AI governance?

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