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How do I choose between blue-green and rolling deployment strategies?
Asked on Oct 17, 2025
Answer
When choosing between blue-green and rolling deployment strategies, consider the trade-offs between minimizing downtime and managing resource usage. Blue-green deployments allow for instant rollback and zero downtime by switching traffic between two identical environments, while rolling deployments gradually replace instances to ensure continuous availability with lower resource overhead.
Example Concept: Blue-green deployment involves maintaining two separate environments (blue and green) where the new version is deployed to the inactive environment. Once validated, traffic is switched from the active environment to the new one, allowing for quick rollback if issues arise. Rolling deployment, on the other hand, updates a portion of instances at a time, gradually replacing the old version with the new, which reduces the risk of downtime but may complicate rollback procedures.
Additional Comment:
- Blue-green deployments are ideal for applications requiring zero downtime and easy rollback.
- Rolling deployments are more resource-efficient and suitable for large-scale applications where gradual updates are acceptable.
- Consider using feature flags with rolling deployments to control feature exposure during updates.
- Evaluate your infrastructure's capacity to support duplicate environments when considering blue-green deployments.
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