1 min lesson
Progressive delivery and the rollback truth
Put yourself in this case. "A desktop app team wants internal users, then beta users, then everyone, with a stop between each. Which pattern, and how do you roll back?" Give the clearest next step.
Step 1 of 2
Progressive delivery is how mature teams shrink the blast radiusHow much breaks if a change goes wrong; the scope of potential damage. Press Enter for the full definition. of a release. Expose a change to a small slice of traffic, watch the signals, then widen or pull back. It's the operational complement to small batches. Know the four patterns cold and know the one thing that breaks the rollback story: the database.
- Pattern
- Blue/green
- Mechanism
- Two full envs; flip traffic atomically
- Rollback
- Flip back to old env instantly
- Trade-off
- Doubles infra; DB shared = the catch
- Pattern
- Canary
- Mechanism
- Route N% of traffic to new version
- Rollback
- Drop the canary's traffic to 0%
- Trade-off
- Needs good metrics + automated abort
- Pattern
- Rings
- Mechanism
- Cohorts: internal → beta → GA
- Rollback
- Stop ring promotion; revert affected ring
- Trade-off
- Slower; great for client/desktop apps
- Pattern
- Rolling
- Mechanism
- Replace instances in batches
- Rollback
- Roll forward or redeploy prior
- Trade-off
- In-flight mixed versions; weakest abort
| Pattern | Mechanism | Rollback | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue/green | Two full envs; flip traffic atomically | Flip back to old env instantly | Doubles infra; DB shared = the catch |
| Canary | Route N% of traffic to new version | Drop the canary's traffic to 0% | Needs good metrics + automated abort |
| Rings | Cohorts: internal → beta → GA | Stop ring promotion; revert affected ring | Slower; great for client/desktop apps |
| Rolling | Replace instances in batches | Roll forward or redeploy prior | In-flight mixed versions; weakest abort |