Apache Kafka version 2.8 has been released with several enhancements, including a preview feature allowing Kafka to run without Zookeeper using the RAFT protocol (KIP-500). Starting from this version, Kafka producers will have "exactly once" delivery semantics enabled by default (KIP-679), and performance improvements include the ability to limit connection creation rate on brokers (KIP-612) and improved leader election performance for clusters with thousands of partitions. Aiven now supports Apache Kafka version 2.8, allowing users to either launch a new cluster or upgrade their existing one.