|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +slug: cert-manager-graduation |
| 3 | +title: cert-manager is now a CNCF Graduated Project! |
| 4 | +description: cert-manager joins Kubernetes itself at the Graduated level of the CNCF |
| 5 | +date: "2024-11-12T09:00:00Z" |
| 6 | +--- |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +The 28th of November 2023 was an important day for the cert-manager project. We [raised](https://github.com/cncf/toc/pull/1212) our first issue on the road to becoming a CNCF Graduated project, |
| 9 | +which then grew into [another issue](https://github.com/cncf/toc/issues/1306), a [security audit](./2024-03-18-cert-manager-security-audit.md) and lots of [due diligence](https://github.com/cncf/toc/pull/1416) |
| 10 | +over the following months. |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +We took that step towards graduation chiefly because being Graduated is the highest rung of the ladder that a CNCF project can climb. |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +There's no higher level - Kubernetes itself is a CNCF Graduated project, along with other incredibly impactful and [noteworthy projects](https://www.cncf.io/projects/) such as Istio, Cilium, Linkerd and SPIFFE. |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +We're now incredibly proud to announce that the 12th of November 2024 is also an important day for cert-manager; we're now officially a CNCF Graduated Project! |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +The CNCF describes graduated projects as: |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +> Projects considered stable, widely adopted, and production ready, attracting thousands of contributors |
| 21 | +
|
| 22 | +We believe this description reflects cert-manager's place in the Cloud Native landscape. We've met hundreds of people at different KubeCon events who've told us that they rely on cert-manager |
| 23 | +in production across thousands of Kubernetes clusters. We treasure the trust that people place in us, and we remain dedicated to keeping cert-manager rock solid. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +Graduation isn't just the end of a long process though - it's a chance to reaffirm our commitment to solving X.509 in Kubernetes. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +There are interesting challenges ahead for cert-manager, and we're excited to be part of the solution. |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +First, consider quantum computers promising to break existing encryption. The process of migrating to post-quantum cryptography has already begun, |
| 30 | +and cert-manager stands ready to adopt standards when they're ready. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +Second, think about the threat-strewn landscape of trust in Kubernetes containers today. trust-manager is growing rapidly, and we think it can |
| 33 | +help not only to manage everyday trust bundles, but also to increase response times for fixing trust issues in Kubernetes. |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +And of course, machine identities - including X.509 certs - are only proliferating faster as time goes on. cert-manager is ready to scale with that growth! |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +We'd like to finish by saying some thank yous: |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +First, we'd like to thank [Katie Gamanji](https://x.com/k_gamanji) who helped to shepherd our project through the graduation process; we quite literally couldn't have |
| 40 | +completed the process without her. |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +Second, we'd like to thank all those who were involved in helping during the process, including those who were interviewed, |
| 43 | +TAG Security and TAG Contributor Strategy, and many others for their feedback and advice. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +Third, we'd like to thank [Venafi](https://venafi.com/) for sponsoring the bulk of the maintainer time required to see this process through. |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +Finally, thank you all for using cert-manager and being such a great community! |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +We're actively looking for more contributors, maintainers, and feedback from users; please reach out on [Slack](https://cert-manager.io/docs/contributing/#slack) or join one of our [regular meetings](https://cert-manager.io/docs/contributing/#meetings) if you're interested in getting involved! |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +Happy graduation to cert-manager! |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +- The cert-manager Maintainers |
| 54 | + |
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