5 posts tagged with "canary release"

The primary goal of software developers is to ensure user satisfaction with the features or updates they introduce. However, achieving this goal can be challenging without the right release strategy. The question often asked, then, is, "How can developers be certain that a new update or feature delivers optimal results to end users?"

Two strategies that can be employed to address this concern are staged rollouts and canary releases. These strategies can be implemented using feature flags, and in this article, we explore how ConfigCat, a popular feature flag provider, can be used to perform staged rollouts and canary releases.

After using a certain tool, feature, or framework in expanding projects, things will start to look more complicated. You begin to wonder if everything is up to standards. Are things implemented correctly and are we following the best practices at the moment, so we have an easier time in the future? The short answer is probably not, because it's impossible.

Every project is different, and it requires an individual approach which will have to have some shortcuts. That being the case, each tool has a certain set of advice on what not to do. If followed, projects can avoid looming pitfalls.

Feature flags are an innovative way of feature management. By using it, you can flag the component and easily disable or enable a feature. This can be done without redeploying the application, and it can target specific clients, regions, or any other category needed.

Picture this: You’ve added a new feature to your software, linked it to a feature flag, and deployed it to production. Now, you’d like to enable this feature for a subset of your users to get their feedback before you take the leap and roll it out to everyone.

But who gets to see this new feature first? How do you choose the first user segment? How do you use feature flag rules to target them?

Good to know: Feature flags let you launch new features and change your software configuration without (re)deploying code.

Let’s look at some typical real-world examples of how you can do canary releases using ConfigCat.

In this post, we’ll look at how we can easily implement a canary release of a feature in 7 steps using ConfigCat’s feature flagging service through its provided dashboard.

This step-by-step guide will showcase how we can release a new feature incrementally, by first exposing it to low-risk user groups (e.g. team members and possibly friends), and then gradually releasing it to a larger audience - using ConfigCat, a feature flag service to implement everything.

Building a modern application often involves building it as a microservice, which provides developers with more flexibility and agility in terms of deployment options. However, deployment can either be a joy or a nightmare, depending on the strategy used, whether it's deploying microservices, testing new features, updating a business logic, or releasing a new version entirely? With every code change pushed, comes the risk of potential failures, which could be as a result of bad code quality or unexpected bugs, and this can potentially disrupt the user's experience.

Hence, picking an efficient deployment strategy is key to mitigating these deployment risks and not having to constantly disrupt your user’s experience by going into downtimes or completely having to go offline whenever there is something to be deployed.