March 2026 monthly summary for confluentinc/kafka-connect-storage-common: Delivered security hardening and release-readiness improvements with a focus on reducing CVE exposure and aligning multi-module releases across 11.0.x–11.2.x streams. Key outcomes include introducing a parquet-shaded-jackson module to safely package Jackson 2.18.6, upgrading Jackson in the ORC core shaded module to resolve CVEs, and coordinating version management and release housekeeping to improve compatibility and release automation. Impact includes safer downstream connectors, smoother upgrade paths for customers, and enhanced code quality practices across the release cycle.

October 2025: Release readiness and version management for an upcoming Kafka Connect Elasticsearch release (v15.0.2). The team prepared for the release by updating version numbers and release configurations to enable a smooth customer-facing process, with no functional changes. This work lays the groundwork for the next development cycle and improves release traceability and governance.