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Teams manage and track code changes using version control systems like Cloud Source Repositories or Secure Source Manager. Secure Source Manager supports standard Git workflows, providing a centralized and secure repository that acts as the single source of truth for code like Cloud Run functions. Keeping a complete history of code changes allows teams to quickly roll back to a known stable version if a new update causes errors in production.
To maintain service availability during updates, organizations must choose an appropriate deployment strategy. A rolling update introduces new code gradually across a pool of active instances to ensure some part of the service is always available to handle traffic. Using automated deployment tools reduces the chance of manual mistakes that could lead to service outages. Other strategies isolate risk by controlling how users interact with new versions:
A continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline automates the process of building, testing, and packaging software. Cloud Build executes structured build steps inside Docker containers to compile code and package applications. Once built, these packages are sent to Artifact Registry, which serves as a secure, centralized package manager for Docker images, Maven, and npm packages. Centralizing these assets gives teams complete control over their software supply chain and prevents external dependency attacks.
Pipelines must verify that all build outputs are safe and authentic before they are deployed. Teams use Artifact Analysis to run automated vulnerability scanning on container images and software packages. To protect the supply chain, the pipeline generates security metadata based on the Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) framework:
Once artifacts are verified, Cloud Deploy orchestrates their release to compute environments like Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or Cloud Run. This delivery tool promotes applications through a structured sequence of environments, such as development, staging, and production, using automated triggers and approval gates. To keep the pipeline secure, administrators enforce the principle of least privilege by running build tasks under user-specified service accounts instead of default accounts, and manage the underlying infrastructure using Terraform to ensure consistency.
Release orchestration is the managed process of moving validated code through a defined promotion sequence from development to production. Cloud Deploy manages this sequence, consuming verified images from Artifact Registry that were originally created by Cloud Build. To customize the release workflow, teams can use deployment hooks to execute specific scripts or database migrations before or after a deployment occurs, while automated promotion moves code to the next environment as soon as it passes its tests.
Maintaining system stability during a release requires continuous monitoring and a clear recovery path. Progressive deployment delivers updates to a small subset of infrastructure first to check for operational issues before proceeding. Teams rely on automated health checks and the Service Health Dashboard to continuously verify that the application is running correctly and to trigger automatic repairs or rollbacks if a failure occurs. If a health check fails, rapid rollback mechanisms immediately return the target environment to its last-known stable configuration to minimize user impact.
When unexpected disasters occur, normal release gates and permission boundaries may need to be bypassed. Organizations establish breakglass procedures to grant temporary, elevated emergency access to critical production systems. These procedures must include a documented escalation plan and strict automated auditing to record all actions taken while the emergency access is active, ensuring compliance and security even during a crisis.
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A canary release sends a small fraction of user traffic to the new version to monitor for errors before a full rollout, while a blue-green deployment maintains two identical environments and switches all user traffic instantly from the old environment to the new one once it passes verification.
A rolling update introduces new code gradually across a pool of active instances, ensuring some part of the service is always available to handle traffic during the update process.
Breakglass procedures are established to grant temporary, elevated emergency access to critical production systems when unexpected disasters occur. They include a documented escalation plan and strict automated auditing to record all actions taken, ensuring compliance and security even during a crisis.
An enterprise runs a critical transaction processing API on Google Cloud. The development team is preparing to release a major version update that includes extensive refactoring of core business logic.
The organization has established the following technical and risk mitigation requirements for the release:
Which deployment strategy should the Cloud Architect recommend?
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