* PVC Protection alpha feature was renamed to Storage Protection. The Storage Protection feature is beta. ([#59052](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/59052), [@pospispa](https://github.com/pospispa))

  Migrated the `PersistentVolumeClaim` protection controller (within `kube-controller-manager`) to use [contextual logging](https://k8s.io/docs/concepts/cluster-administration/system-logs/#contextual-logging).

* Add support for adding/removing finalizer depending on PVC protection feature gate ([#61370](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/61370), [@gnufied](https://github.com/gnufied))

### Apps

- Support Service Topology ([#72046](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72046), [@m1093782566](https://github.com/m1093782566))

now always set to "systemd" unless the user is explicit about it. This requires existing machine setups to configure the container runtime to use the "systemd" driver. Documentation on this topic can be found here: https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/production-environment/container-runtimes/. When upgrading existing clusters / nodes using "kubeadm upgrade" the old cgroupDriver value is preserved, but in 1.22 this change will also apply to "upgrade". For more information on migrating to the "systemd" driver...

### SIG AWS

* ACTION REQUIRED: Removes defaulting of CSI file system type to ext4. All the production drivers listed under https://kubernetes-csi.github.io/docs/drivers.html were inspected and should not be impacted after this change. If you are using a driver not in that list, please test the drivers on an updated test cluster first. ([#65499]...

[SIG Cluster Lifecycle]: https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/sig-cluster-lifecycle

### SIG Instrumentation

[SIG Instrumentation][] is responsible for metrics production and
collection.

For the 1.8 release, SIG Instrumentation focused on stabilizing the APIs
and components that are required to support the new version of the Horizontal Pod

* Volume topology aware dynamic provisioning for external provisioners is now supported. ([#63193](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63193), [@lichuqiang](https://github.com/lichuqiang))
* Added a volume projection that is able to project service account tokens. ([#62005](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/62005), [@mikedanese](https://github.com/mikedanese))

- Set `PodMaxUnschedulableQDuration` as 5 min. ([#108761](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108761), [@denkensk](https://github.com/denkensk))
- Support in-tree PV deletion protection finalizer. ([#108400](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108400), [@deepakkinni](https://github.com/deepakkinni))