Container Storage Interface (CSI) is a cross-industry standards initiative that aims to lower the barrier for cloud native storage development and ensure compatibility. [SIG-Storage](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/sig-storage) and the [CSI Community](https://github.com/container-storage-interface/community) are collaborating to deliver a single interface for provisioning, attaching, and mounting storage compatible with Kubernetes.
Kubernetes 1.9 introduces an [alpha implementation](https://github.com/kubernetes/features/issues/178) of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), which will make installing new volume plugins as easy as deploying a pod, and enable third-party storage providers to develop their solutions without the need to add to the core Kubernetes codebase.
Because the feature is alpha in 1.9, it must be explicitly enabled and is not recommended for production usage, but it indicates the roadmap working toward a more extensible and standards-based Kubernetes storage ecosystem.
## Additional Features
Custom Resource Definition (CRD) Validation, now graduating to beta and enabled by default, helps CRD authors give clear and immediate feedback for invalid objects
SIG Node hardware accelerator moves to alpha, enabling GPUs and consequently machine learning and other high performance workloads
CoreDNS alpha makes it possible to install CoreDNS with standard tools
IPVS mode for kube-proxy goes beta, providing better scalability and performance for large clusters
Each Special Interest Group (SIG) in the community continues to deliver the most requested user features for their area. For a complete list, please visit the [release notes](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v190).
## Availability
Kubernetes 1.9 is available for [download on GitHub](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/releases/tag/v1.9.0). To get started with Kubernetes, check out these [interactive tutorials](/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/).
## Release team
This release is made possible through the effort of hundreds of individuals who contributed both technical and non-technical content. Special thanks to the [release team](https://github.com/kubernetes/features/blob/master/release-1.9/release_team.md) led by Anthony Yeh, Software Engineer at Google. The 14 individuals on the release team coordinate many aspects of the release, from documentation to testing, validation, and feature completeness.
As the Kubernetes community has grown, our release process has become an amazing demonstration of collaboration in open source software development. Kubernetes continues to gain new users at a rapid clip. This growth creates a positive feedback cycle where more contributors commit code creating a more vibrant ecosystem.
## Project Velocity
The CNCF has embarked on an ambitious project to visualize the myriad contributions that go into the project. [K8s DevStats](https://devstats.k8s.io/) illustrates the breakdown of contributions from major company contributors. Open issues remained relatively stable over the course of the release, while forks rose approximately 20%, as did individuals starring the various project repositories. Approver volume has risen slightly since the last release, but a lull is commonplace during the last quarter of the year. With 75,000+ comments, Kubernetes remains one of the most actively discussed projects on GitHub.
## User highlights
According to the l[atest survey conducted by CNCF](https://www.cncf.io/blog/2017/12/06/cloud-native-technologies-scaling-production-applications), 61 percent of organizations are evaluating and 83 percent are using Kubernetes in production. Example of user stories from the community include:
BlaBlaCar, the world’s largest long distance carpooling community connects 40 million members across 22 countries. The company has about 3,000 pods, with [1,200 of them running on Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/case-studies/blablacar/), leading to improved website availability for customers.