The next version of Kubernetes (Kubernetes 1.7) is expected to include new features that could come at the cost of initial stability and application programming interface (API) compatibility.

In a blog post, Mirantis said Kubernetes 1.7 could focus on up to 50 new features targeting the alpha state, which would build on the 1.6 version that was more focused on stability and hardening past efforts. New efforts are expected around federation, security, and networking.

"Most of these new capabilities will be initially launched as alpha features with limited stability and API compatibility, and will be continuously improved over time." wrote Ihor Dvoretskyi, a member of Mirantis' Kubernetes engineering team.

The Kubernetes 1.7 release team is said to be in place, with representation from Google, CoreOS, Red Hat, Microsoft, and of course Mirantis. The feature set has yet to be finalized, though Mirantis said the code is set to be frozen on June 1. Keeping with its three-month cycle, Kubernetes 1.7 is scheduled to be released near the end of June.

Dvoretskyi said the Kubernetes community is also moving on a proposal for running local clusters for development purposes, dubbed the catchy name Kubeadm-dind-cluster. Current local cluster projects run under Minikube, Kubeadm, and Kargo.

Mirantis last month launched an integrated cloud platform supporting virtual machines using OpenStack, containers using Kubernetes, and bare metal. The move followed on work last year with Google and Intel in bolstering Kubernetes as the standard for container orchestration in OpenStack.

Despite the increased focus on Kubernetes, Mirantis has stated ongoing support for OpenStack.

“Kubernetes is a new paradigm,” said Boris Renski, Mirantis co-founder and CMO, connected with the Mirantis Cloud Platform launch. “It definitely has the wow and cool factor that supersedes the boring OpenStack, which was the cool thing two years ago. But from the standpoint of usage, both virtual machines and containers are going to be here for a long time. Us embracing Kubernetes is just us following the need for people to supplement their VM infrastructure with container infrastructure as opposed to us dumping OpenStack and pivoting everything into Kubernetes.”