* Deprecate auto detecting cloud providers in kubelet. Auto detecting cloud providers go against the initiative for out-of-tree cloud providers as we'll now depend on cAdvisor integrations with cloud providers instead of the core repo. In the near future, `--cloud-provider` for kubelet will either be an empty string or `external`.  ([#51312](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51312),...

- The cloud config for Azure cloud provider can now be initialized from Kubernetes secret azure-cloud-provider in kube-system namespace
    - the secret is a serialized version of `azure.json` file with key cloud-config. And the secret name is azure-cloud-provider.

- Fix: initial delay in mounting azure disk & file ([#93052](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93052), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]
- Fixed a performance issue applying json patches to deeply nested objects ([#93813](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93813), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG API Machinery, CLI, Cloud Provider and Cluster Lifecycle]

### SIG Cloud Provider

fa-closed-captioning:before{content:"\f20a"}.fa-cloud:before{content:"\f0c2"}.fa-cloud-download-alt:before{content:"\f381"}.fa-cloud-meatball:before{content:"\f73b"}.fa-cloud-moon:before{content:"\f6c3"}.fa-cloud-moon-rain:before{content:"\f73c"}.fa-cloud-rain:before{content:"\f73d"}.fa-cloud-showers-heavy:before{content:"\f740"}.fa-cloud-sun:before{content:"\f6c4"}.fa-cloud-sun-rain:before{content:"\f743"}.fa-cloud-upload-alt:before{content:"\f382"}.fa-cloudscale:before{content:"\f383"}.fa-clou...

        $ kubectl version
        # paste output here
        ```

        </details>
    validations:
      required: true

  - type: textarea
    id: cloudProvider
    attributes:
      label: Cloud provider
      value: |
        <details>

        </details>
    validations:
      required: true

  - type: textarea
    id: osVersion
    attributes:
      label: OS version
      value: |

* Deprecate auto detecting cloud providers in kubelet. Auto detecting cloud providers go against the initiative for out-of-tree cloud providers as we'll now depend on cAdvisor integrations with cloud providers instead of the core repo. In the near future, `--cloud-provider` for kubelet will either be an empty string or `external`.  ([#51312](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51312),...

#### Cloud Provider Support
* [alpha] Improved support for out-of-tree and out-of-process cloud providers, a.k.a pluggable cloud providers. See [Build and Run cloud-controller-manager](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/running-cloud-controller) documentation.


### **Cluster Federation**
#### Placement Policy

 * `CLEARTEXT` is an insecure configuration that is used for `http://` URLs.

These loosely follow the model set in [Google Cloud Policies](https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/ssl-policies-concepts). We [track changes](../security/tls_configuration_history.md) to this policy.

                                        <div class="form-check">
                                            <la:checkbox styleId="resetDictionaries" styleClass="form-check-input" property="resetDictionaries" disabled="${fesenType=='cloud' or fesenType=='aws'}"/>
                                            <label for="resetDictionaries" class="form-check-label">
                                                <la:message key="labels.enabled"/>