Kong Gateway 3.0 marks a significant advancement in the cloud-native API platform, offering enhanced security, flexibility, and performance for both enterprise and open-source editions. The update introduces features like FIPS 140-2 compliance for secure operations, an advanced routing engine for optimized request handling, and extensive tracing support through OpenTelemetry integration. It also provides new WebSocket plugins for frame validation and size limitation, improved secrets management for secure storage of sensitive information, and customizable plugin execution order to suit different organizational needs. Additionally, Kong Manager 3.0 has been revamped for better API management with an intuitive interface and informative dashboards. Notable performance improvements include a 37% increase in throughput and reduced latency, along with the ability to incrementally reload routing configurations. The release also includes several deprecations and removals to streamline functionality, alongside updates like better plugin version alignment and new Docker image bases.