Zero-Downtime Deployment on AWS
Implementing automated blue/green, canary, and rolling deployments on AWS using ALB, Jenkins CI/CD, and CloudFront.
Executive Summary
A global collaboration platform required zero-downtime deployment on AWS. By using an ALB, VPC, S3 with CloudFront, and a Jenkins CI/CD pipeline supporting rolling, blue/green, and canary releases, we enabled automated, reliable deployments with instant rollbacks and optimized network performance.
Why AWS
AWS was selected for its high availability, low-latency networking, and strong scalability. Its CI/CD ecosystem and fast rollback features enabled zero-downtime releases while maintaining reliability and resilience.
The Challenge
Mattermost needed zero-downtime, high-speed deployments, but its AWS setup was manual and fragmented, making rollbacks slow and increasing operational risk. A streamlined, automated deployment process was essential to maintain availability and performance.
Architectural Decisions
Zero-Downtime Strategy
- Blue/Green deployment for major version releases
- Canary deployment for patch versions
- Rolling deployments for config-only changes
Why ALB?
- Supports weighted target groups (for canary)
- Health checks for automatic failovers
- Path-based routing for asset split between app and CloudFront
Why S3 + CloudFront?
- Offload image & file distribution
- Reduce EC2 bandwidth costs
- Make static assets globally fast (~45–60 ms TTFB)
Performance & Stability Measurements
Load Test
- 450 concurrent clients
- 25,000 messages over 20 minutes
- File uploads: 8.5GB mixed content
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Avg API latency | 124 ms |
| WebSocket drops | 0.4% |
| Deployment downtime | 0 sec |
| RDS CPU | 48–55% |
| Canary failure rate | ~3% |
Results & Benefits
The deployment framework delivered zero-downtime releases with blue/green and canary strategies, instant rollback under 12 seconds, and fast asset delivery via S3 + CloudFront. Internal users now experience sub-150 ms response times, while a fully isolated VPC and auditable CI/CD history ensure security and reliability. Over the past 60 days, uptime reached 99.996%, demonstrating the effectiveness of the automated, repeatable infrastructure.
