HomeGetting Started
Feature Flags
How to Release to Production Faster Using Release Flags
Alexandru Puiu
Alexandru Puiu
January 19, 2022
2 min

Table Of Contents

01
Introduction: What are Release Flags and Why should you Care?
02
Release Flags for Greater Deployment Flexibility
03
How to use Feature Flagging To Accelerate Development & Deployment Cycles
04
The Benefits of Automated Feature Management with Feature Flags

Try it for free: 1 app, 2 environments, unlimited feature flags

Live Feature Toggles. No credit card required
Start Toggling

Introduction: What are Release Flags and Why should you Care?

Release Flags are a type of feature flag that is used to control how different parts of an application are released. They allow developers to release new features in stages, and only when they’re confident that the new features will work as expected.

Release flags can be used for various purposes from release management to testing. They can be set up for a specific time period, or until a specific event occurs, which would then automatically turn on the flag.

Release Flags for Greater Deployment Flexibility

Release flags are a great way for developers to control the deployment of software updates. They provide flexibility in terms of deployment strategy with the release of new features or bug fixes. Ideally, they should be used with a phased approach so that bugs can be fixed before releasing them to all users. This can be a very important step in a software deployment strategy because it helps avoid major issues like data loss and security breaches.

Release feature flags are often used in conjunction with blue-green deployments and canary releases. They allow developers to test new features before they are released to all users and make sure that they don’t break anything in the process.

A canary release is a software deployment strategy that allows for greater deployment flexibility. It is a type of staged release where the new version of the software is released to a small subset of users, and if no major problems are found, it is then released to all users.

The blue-green deployment strategy is another type of staged release where the new version of the software is deployed in parallel with the old version. If no major problems are found, then the old version can be decommissioned and replaced with the new one.

How to use Feature Flagging To Accelerate Development & Deployment Cycles

Feature flagging is a technique that allows developers to deploy code changes without having to worry about breaking the production environment by releasing features to a subset of users first. This technique can be used in many ways, but the most common use case is for A/B testing.

A/B testing is a really powerful technique for improving user engagement and conversion rates. It allows you to test different versions of your site or app against each other, and measure which one produces the best results.

However, traditional A/B testing can also be really time-consuming and expensive. This is because you need to create two versions of your site or app, then show them to users in equal proportions until you get enough data to make a decision. Feature flags can help you run A/B tests more quickly and cheaply.

The Benefits of Automated Feature Management with Feature Flags

Automated feature management with feature flags is a great way to release new features and updates without any downtime. It has many benefits:

  • It enables developers to deploy code changes without needing to worry about downtime.
  • It also enables them to rollback code changes without needing to worry about downtime.
  • Developers can also use it as an A/B testing tool for features and updates.
  • Feature flags are easy to set up and they don’t need any complicated infrastructure.

Conclusion: Automated feature management with feature flags is a great way to release new features and updates without any downtime, enabling developers to deploy code changes without worrying about downtime, roll back code changes, and use it as an A/B testing tool for features and updates.


Tags

#ab-testing#blue-green-deployment#canary-release#feature-flags#release-management

Try it for free: 1 app, 2 environments, unlimited feature flags

Live Feature Toggles. No credit card required
Alexandru Puiu

Alexandru Puiu

Software Engineer

Systems Engineering advocate, Software Engineer, Security Architect / Researcher, SQL/NoSQL DBA, and Certified Scrum Master with a passion for Distributed Systems, AI and IoT..

Expertise

.NET
RavenDB
Kubernetes

Social Media

githubtwitterwebsite

Related Posts

Flutter Feature Flags
A Comprehensive Guide to Implementing Feature Flags in Flutter
April 14, 2023
3 min

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

We'll only send worthwhile content we think you'll want, maybe once a month, and promise to never spam or sell your information!

Quick Links

HomeStories

Social Media