Deployment is the process of making software changes available to users by releasing them to a production environment. It covers everything from copying new code to servers, running database migrations, updating configurations, and verifying that the changes work correctly in the live environment.
You’ll hear this when…
“When does this deploy?” means “when will this change be available to users?” “We deployed a fix” means a correction has been pushed to the live system. “The deploy broke prod” means a release caused a problem in the production environment.
Deployments can range from trivial (updating a text string) to complex (migrating database schemas, rolling out new infrastructure). Modern teams aim for small, frequent deployments rather than large, infrequent releases — it’s easier to identify and fix problems when fewer things change at once.
Common deployment strategies include rolling deployments (gradually replacing old instances with new ones), blue-green deployments (running two identical environments and switching traffic), and canary deployments (releasing to a small percentage of users first).
Deployment vs. release
Some teams distinguish between the two. A deployment puts new code on servers. A release makes it visible to users. With feature flags, code can be deployed but not released — it’s on the server but hidden behind a toggle until the team decides to turn it on.
Source: The Twelve-Factor App methodology — build, release, run