Canary vs blue-green — when to use each?
mediumAnswer
- Canary: gradual traffic shift (1% → 10% → 50% → 100%); great for ML where model quality is uncertain + wanting real-user metrics before full rollout.
- Blue-green: instant flip; great when new model was thoroughly tested offline + rollback speed matters more than gradual verification.
- ML preference: canary (or shadow + canary) because offline metrics don't capture everything (business KPI, latency under load).
- Blue-green for infrastructure-only changes.
Check yourself — multiple choice
- Same
- Canary: gradual 1%→100% shift, ML preferred (real metrics with limited risk); Blue-green: instant flip, when offline testing suffices + rollback speed matters; use canary for ML + BG for infra
- Random
- Not real
Canary for ML (gradual verification); BG for infra (instant flip).
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