Canary Deployments Are a Myth - True Progressive Delivery Occurs Via OpenFeature

This conference talk debunks common myths about canary deployments while presenting OpenFeature as a more effective approach to progressive delivery. Drawing from two decades of deployment experience, Bob Walker from Octopus Deploy explains why canary deployments, despite their popularity, often fail to deliver on their promises. Learn why these deployments rarely catch issues in mature CI/CD pipelines, require substantial investment in deployment processes and rollback strategies, and lack the precision needed for targeted user testing. Discover how OpenFeature provides a superior alternative that allows separating deployment from feature release, simplifies rollbacks through toggles rather than version redirects, and enables precise user segmentation for targeted feedback collection. The presentation offers practical insights for implementing true progressive delivery without overhauling existing build and deployment processes.