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2.2Deployment Strategy Comparison
| Strategy | Traffic Split | Rollback Speed | Infrastructure Cost | Observability Need |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canary | 1-10% new, rest old | Seconds (shift traffic) | Low (few new pods) | High (compare metrics) |
| Blue-Green | 100% switch | Seconds (DNS/LB switch) | High (2x infrastructure) | Medium |
| Rolling | Gradual pod replacement | Minutes (scale down new) | Low | Medium |
| Shadow/Dark | 0% user-facing (mirror) | N/A (no user impact) | Medium (duplicate processing) | High |
When to Use Each
- Canary: Default choice for critical services where you want statistical validation before full rollout
- Blue-Green: When you need instant, complete rollback capability (e.g., database schema changes)
- Rolling: For non-critical services where gradual replacement is sufficient
- Shadow: For validating a complete rewrite against production traffic without user impact