diff --git a/agent-operator/pom.xml b/agent-operator/pom.xml
index 069efa5f4d..8104a8781d 100644
--- a/agent-operator/pom.xml
+++ b/agent-operator/pom.xml
@@ -33,10 +33,6 @@
             <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
             <artifactId>kubernetes-client</artifactId>
         </dependency>
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
-            <artifactId>kubernetes-model</artifactId>
-        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
             <artifactId>kubernetes-model-apiextensions</artifactId>
diff --git a/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/PodUtils.java b/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/PodUtils.java
index 97aa095846..183e2e40c2 100644
--- a/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/PodUtils.java
+++ b/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/PodUtils.java
@@ -23,41 +23,15 @@
 import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.Pod;
 import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.KubernetesClient;
 import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.KubernetesClientException;
-import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.dsl.ExecListener;
-import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.dsl.ExecWatch;
-import okhttp3.Response;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
-import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.util.Map;
-import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
 
 public final class PodUtils {
 
     private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(PodUtils.class);
 
-    public static Output exec(KubernetesClient client, String podName, String containerName, String... cmd) {
-        ByteArrayOutputStream stdout = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-        ByteArrayOutputStream stderr = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-
-        Listener l = new Listener();
-        try (ExecWatch w = client.pods().withName(podName)
-                .inContainer(containerName)
-                .writingOutput(stdout)
-                .writingError(stderr)
-                .usingListener(l)
-                .exec(cmd)) {
-
-            l.await();
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            log.error("exec ['{}', '{}'] -> error while executing '{}': {}", podName, containerName, cmd, e.getMessage());
-            throw e;
-        }
-
-        return new Output(stdout.toString(), stderr.toString());
-    }
-
     public static void applyTag(KubernetesClient client, String podName, String tagName, String tagValue) {
         Pod pod = client.pods().withName(podName).get();
         if (pod == null) {
@@ -81,52 +55,6 @@ public static void applyTag(KubernetesClient client, String podName, String tagN
         }
     }
 
-    public static class Output {
-
-        private final String stdout;
-        private final String stderr;
-
-        private Output(String stdout, String stderr) {
-            this.stdout = stdout;
-            this.stderr = stderr;
-        }
-
-        public String getStdout() {
-            return stdout;
-        }
-
-        public String getStderr() {
-            return stderr;
-        }
-    }
-
-    private static class Listener implements ExecListener {
-
-        private final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
-
-        @Override
-        public void onOpen(Response response) {
-        }
-
-        @Override
-        public void onFailure(Throwable t, Response response) {
-            latch.countDown();
-        }
-
-        @Override
-        public void onClose(int code, String reason) {
-            latch.countDown();
-        }
-
-        public void await() {
-            try {
-                latch.await();
-            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-                Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
-            }
-        }
-    }
-
     private PodUtils() {
     }
 }
diff --git a/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/crd/AgentPoolList.java b/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/crd/AgentPoolList.java
index cf5e7e152e..fc7b413ea0 100644
--- a/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/crd/AgentPoolList.java
+++ b/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/crd/AgentPoolList.java
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@
  * =====
  */
 
-import io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.CustomResourceList;
+import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.DefaultKubernetesResourceList;
 
-public class AgentPoolList extends CustomResourceList<AgentPool> {
+public class AgentPoolList extends DefaultKubernetesResourceList<AgentPool> {
 
 }
diff --git a/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/planner/DeleteConfigMapChange.java b/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/planner/DeleteConfigMapChange.java
index 2c956608ba..02231d1805 100644
--- a/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/planner/DeleteConfigMapChange.java
+++ b/agent-operator/src/main/java/com/walmartlabs/concord/agentoperator/planner/DeleteConfigMapChange.java
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@ public DeleteConfigMapChange(String configMapName) {
 
     @Override
     public void apply(KubernetesClient client) {
-        if (client.configMaps().withName(configMapName).delete()) {
+        var result = client.configMaps().withName(configMapName).delete();
+        if (!result.isEmpty()) {
             // wait till it's actually removed
             while (client.configMaps().withName(configMapName).get() != null) {
                 try {
diff --git a/targetplatform/pom.xml b/targetplatform/pom.xml
index 9a6e150aa1..ad12100542 100644
--- a/targetplatform/pom.xml
+++ b/targetplatform/pom.xml
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
         <junit.version>5.9.1</junit.version>
         <kafka.client.version>2.4.0</kafka.client.version>
         <kerby.version>2.0.1</kerby.version>
-        <kubernetes.client.version>5.7.0</kubernetes.client.version>
+        <kubernetes.client.version>7.0.1</kubernetes.client.version>
         <launcher.version>0.128</launcher.version>
         <liquibase.version>4.29.2</liquibase.version>
         <logback.version>1.4.14</logback.version>
@@ -1101,11 +1101,6 @@
                 <artifactId>commons-collections</artifactId>
                 <version>${commons.collections.version}</version>
             </dependency>
-            <dependency>
-                <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
-                <artifactId>kubernetes-model</artifactId>
-                <version>${kubernetes.client.version}</version>
-            </dependency>
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
                 <artifactId>kubernetes-model-common</artifactId>