Prior to CSI, Kubernetes provided a powerful volume plugin system. These volume plugins were “in-tree” meaning their code was part of the core Kubernetes code and shipped with the core Kubernetes binaries. However, adding support for new volume plugins to Kubernetes was challenging. Vendors that wanted to add support for their storage system to Kubernetes (or even fix a bug in an existing volume plugin) were forced to align with the Kubernetes release process. In addition, third-party storage code caused reliability and security issues in core Kubernetes binaries and the code was often difficu