🚀 Amazon EKS Now Supports Kubernetes 1.33 — What’s New and Why It Matters

🔧 Amazon EKS and EKS Distro now support the latest Kubernetes 1.33 release!

The Kubernetes ecosystem just got a solid upgrade — and now Amazon EKS and Amazon EKS Distro are ready for it.

AWS has announced general availability of Kubernetes version 1.33 for both:

• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
• Amazon EKS Distro (EKS-D)

Starting today, you can:

🚀 Create new EKS clusters with Kubernetes 1.33

🔄 Upgrade existing clusters using the EKS console, eksctl, or your favorite IaC tool

🔍 What’s New in Kubernetes 1.33?

Kubernetes 1.33 packs a number of improvements focused on scalability, observability, and developer flexibility.

🧱 1. Stable Support for Sidecar Containers

Finally! Sidecars (e.g., for logging, security, or service mesh) are now officially stable. This unlocks better lifecycle management and more reliable injection patterns.

📡 2. Topology-Aware Routing and Distribution

Improved support for routing traffic based on node topology (region, zone, rack) — reducing latency and improving availability across zones.

🧮 3. Pod Topology Spread Constraints + Taints/Tolerations

Kubernetes can now consider taints and tolerations when calculating pod distribution. This means smarter scheduling decisions across your clusters.

🔐 4. User Namespaces for Linux Pods

This brings enhanced security and isolation by allowing pods to use different user ID mappings within the host system.

📶 5. Dynamic Resource Allocation for Network Interfaces

Pods can now request and be assigned network resources dynamically — great for high-performance workloads like eBPF or service meshes.

📈 6. In-Place Pod Resource Resizing

No more restarting pods to change CPU/memory limits! You can now scale vertically with minimal disruption.

🛠️ How to Upgrade to 1.33

You can upgrade your EKS clusters to 1.33 via:

• EKS Console
• eksctl
• Terraform, CloudFormation, or CDK

Be sure to check compatibility with your workloads and custom controllers before upgrading.

🌍 Regional Availability

Kubernetes 1.33 is now available in all AWS Regions where Amazon EKS is supported.