The latest iteration of Kubernetes has launched, with the open source company promising 1.8 will be laser focused on security and sustainability.

The launch – the third of its type this year – offers a variety of new initiatives, from greater support for role based access control (RBAC), to transport layer security (TLS), to promotion for a series of workload APIs.

“Kubernetes 1.8 represents a snapshot of many exciting enhancements and refinements underway,” a company post explained. “In addition to functional improvements, we’re increasing project-wide focus on maturing process, formalising architecture, and strengthening Kubernetes’ governance model.

“The evolution of mature processes clearly signals that sustainability is a driving concern, and helps to ensure that Kubernetes is a viable and thriving project far into the future.”

The note came from four executives; Aparna Sinha, Kubernetes group product manager, Ihor Dvoretskyi, developer advocated for the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Caleb Miles, technical program manager for CoreOS, and Jaice Singer DuMars, Microsoft Kubernetes ambassador.

It’s safe to say that Kubernetes’ profile has been raised by the latter’s additions to CNCF, the San-Francisco based organisation focused on sustaining containers and microservices architectures. Microsoft signed up in July saying it was ‘another natural step’ on its open source journey, while Oracle signed up in September.

Writing for this publication back in January, Rob Greenwood, technical director at Steamhaus, said now was the time for organisations to take the plunge with Kubernetes.

“The layer of abstraction that Kubernetes provides means we now only need to talk to one technology to gain a higher level of control over everything at a lower level,” he wrote. “It also means we can take a cloud infrastructure built in one cloud environment, such as AWS, and move it into another environment, including Azure or Google Cloud.

“This really is the next generation of cloud, with lots of big name organisations already jumping on the bandwagon and embracing Kubernetes,” he added. “However, this move will not be as simple for everyone. Many companies will need to undergo a major cultural shift before this is possible.”

You can read the full blog post announcing 1.8 here.

Read more: Why Kubernetes promises much for those willing to embrace a cultural shift