The Kubernetes crew kept to its regimented timeline, releasing the latest version of its container orchestration platform, dubbed 1.7. The latest update, which was released on its regular three-month cycle, includes additional security, storage, and extensibility features designed to target growing enterprise use of the open source technology.

In a blog post, Google’s Aparna Sinha and Mirantis’ Ihor Dvoretskyi, said some of the security enhancements include encrypted Secrets and other resources in etcd, which is an open source distributed key value store used by Kubernetes. Other updates include network policy for pod-to-pod communications; node authorizer to limit kubelet access; and client/server TLS certification rotation.

Storage updates now allow access to local storage volumes through the standard PVC/PV interface and through StorageClasses in StatefulSets. A new StorageOS Volume plugin provides cluster-wide persistent volumes from local or attached node storage.

Some of the extensible updates include support for admission controllers, pluggable cloud providers, and container runtime interface (CRI) now supporting the ability to retrieve container metrics from the runtime.

The latest Kubernetes update also replaces third-party resources (TPR) with customer resource definitions (CRD). The move is designed to provide a cleaner application programming interface (API) and resolve issues raised during beta use of TPR.

“If you use the TPR beta feature, you are encouraged to migrate as it is slated for removal by the community in Kubernetes 1.9,” the group said.

Kubernetes 1.7 is available now through Github.

Red Hat said the extensibility updates were an important enhancement in the latest Kubernetes release. Joe Fernandes, senior director at Red Hat, said this allowed for an expanded functionality “without substantially bloating the core project.”

Fernandes also cited the security updates that showed continued support for “something manageable and maintainable.”

Security was expected to be a big focus of 1.7, with Mirantis last month citing the feature as part of expected enhancements to the orchestration platform.

Looking ahead, Fernandes said storage and network enhancements could be more prominent in the next platform iteration.

“As we find that storage starts to be software-defined and hyperconverged on the same machines as the application in a software-defined manor, it just creates more challenges to correctly define the future of multiple networks inside Kubernetes,” Fernandes said.

Kubernetes has gained significant container orchestration market share. The group said it has pushed more than 50,000 commits over the past three years.

Recent reports have shown Kubernetes controlling more than 70 percent of the container orchestration market. This far outpaces other platforms such as Docker Swarm and Mesosphere.