6 Kubernetes Deployment Strategies (with Sample Code)

Deploying applications on Kubernetes can be challenging due to the need to manage containers, pods, services, and configurations. However, employing the right Kubernetes deployment strategy can help minimize risk when rolling out new features, maintain service availability during updates, better manage resources across your cluster, quickly roll back if something goes wrong, and test new versions of the application with real traffic before full release. There are six types of Kubernetes deployment strategies: recreate deployment, rolling update, blue/green deployment, canary deployment, shadow deployment, and A/B testing deployment. Each strategy provides different tradeoffs between speed, safety, complexity, and resource usage. Combining your deployment strategy with feature flags gives you an extra layer of control and safety by controlling what happens once the code is in production.