Blue-Green eployment

What is blue-green deployment?

Blue-green deployment is a strategy for rolling out applications with minimal downtime. This approach uses two identical production environments, known as blue and green. While one environment handles live traffic, the other gets updated.

When you need to deploy new code, you do it in the idle environment. Once everything is stable, you switch traffic to the updated environment. The previously live environment stays on standby, ready for a quick rollback if needed.

Benefits of blue-green deployment

Why choose blue-green?

• Zero downtime: Updates roll out without user access interruption.

• Quick rollbacks: Switch back to the previous version instantly if needed.

• Safe testing: Test new features in the green environment before going live.

Enhancing team confidence

• Reduces deployment stress.

• Encourages frequent, reliable releases.

• Promotes a culture of safe experimentation.

Real-world examples of blue-green deployment

E-commerce platform

• Scenario: Deploying a new payment gateway.

• Process: Test the gateway in the green environment. Switch traffic to green after ensuring stability. For more on transitioning environments, see Moving from POC to Production and Best Practices: Deployment of Feature Gates.

• Rollback: If payment issues occur, revert to the blue environment immediately. You can monitor this process using monitoring experiments.

Mobile application

• Scenario: Releasing a major app update.

• Process: Push the update to the green environment. Monitor performance, then switch user traffic. Refer to Continuous Delivery for more on automated deployment pipelines.

• Rollback: Return to the blue environment if any critical bugs are found. For further insights, check out metrics dashboard and health checks.