# Contour Operator v1.17.0
We are delighted to present version 1.16.0 of Contour Operator, which provides a method for packaging, deploying, and managing [Contour](https://projectcontour.io/).
A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the release.
# API Changes
## Additions to the Contour CRD
### Loadbalancer Service configuration
The Operator now supports configuring the generated Envoy service to have a specific external IP address on AWS, Azure, and GCP.
So now, when your cloud provider creates a load balancer for you, you can request a specific address using the Contour object.
Thanks to @BostjanBozic for contributing this great change!
PR details:
[#336](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/336) : Optional loadBalancerIP input in Contour
We also had an example added of using the already-existing AWS internal ELB support. Thanks @erismaster!
[#390](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/390) : Add example contour deployment with internal-elb
## Specify nodes to run Contour and Envoy on
The Contour object now has a `nodePlacement` stanza which allows specifying the placement of Contour and Envoy pods onto nodes, specified either with a Node label selector, or Tolerations (which select based on node taints).
Thanks to @amdonov for suggesting and preparing this change.
PR details:
[#373](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/373) : support running contour and envoy on specific nodes
## General Improvements
### Validation for IngressClass
Contour Operator will now validate that a referenced IngressClass object exists.
[#388](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/388) : Adds IngressClassName Validation
### CI and infrastructure changes
@vchrisb helped to update the referenced kube-rbac-proxy version so that the Operator installation can work correctly on arm64 platforms. Thanks @vchrisb.
[#376](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/376) : update kube-rbac-proxy image version to support arm64
# Other Changes
[#385](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/385) : CI: add uncommitted codegen check,skriss:ci-codegen-check
[#394](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/394) : Bump golang to 1.16.5,sunjayBhatia:bump-golang
[#387](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/387) : Updates Contrib Guide for Kubebuilder Changes,danehans:issue_286
[#374](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/374) : Bump kind cli and images,sunjayBhatia:bump-kind-images
[#372](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour-operator/pull/372) : internal/objects/service: refactor test,skriss:svc-test-refactor
# Are you a Contour Operator user? We would love to know!
If you're using the Contour Operator (and Contour) and want to add your organization to our adopters list, please visit this [page](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour/blob/master/ADOPTERS.md). If you prefer to keep your organization name anonymous but still give us feedback into your usage and scenarios for Contour and the Operator, please post on this [GitHub thread](https://github.com/projectcontour/contour/issues/1269).