Canary Releases
Canary releases are a deployment strategy where new software versions are gradually rolled out to a small subset of users before a full release. This approach allows teams to test changes in a production environment with minimal risk, monitoring for issues like bugs or performance degradation. It is named after the 'canary in a coal mine' concept, where early warning signs can prevent larger failures.
Developers should use canary releases when deploying high-risk updates, such as major feature changes or infrastructure migrations, to reduce the impact of potential failures. It is particularly valuable in microservices architectures, cloud-native applications, or any system where rapid iteration and reliability are critical, enabling real-world validation before scaling to all users.