Kubernetes 1.8 is the third major milestone release for Kubernetes in 2017, and follows the Kubernetes 1.7 update that debuted in June. The Kubernetes project was originally started by Google and has been managed as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) effort since July 2015.
Among the key highlights in the Kubernetes 1.8 release is Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), which is now considered to be a stable technology. RBAC had previously been a beta technology since the Kubernetes 1.6 release in March 2017.