Deployment rings
When the user base is large, deployment rings help you deploy or roll out applications in phases. The first phase targets a small set of users and then increases progressively as the rollout happens. Releasing a major version to a large user base is risky compared to releasing it to a limited set of users and then rolling back when confidence has been built. The deployment rings can be set as follows:
- Canaries: Users who voluntarily test the features as soon as they are released
- Early adopters: Users who can take risks in using the preview features.
- Users: Users who use the features once they have been tested by canaries and early adopters.
Using stages in the Azure DevOps release pipeline helps you implement deployment rings. The release, once built, is deployed to canaries, and then to early adopters, and then to users. The following diagram depicts deployment rings in conjunction with Azure DevOps: