Independent Deployments
Independent deployment is the core value proposition of micro frontends. When each team can ship their slice of the application without coordinating with other teams, organizations unlock faster delivery, reduced risk, and true ownership. This page covers why independent deployments matter, deployment strategies, infrastructure requirements, rollback approaches, and environment management for distributed frontends.
Why Independent Deployments Matter
Section titled “Why Independent Deployments Matter”In a monolithic frontend, deployment is an all-or-nothing event. One release includes changes from every team. A bug in one area can block the entire release. Teams must coordinate schedules, merge branches, and pass integration tests before anyone can ship.
Independent deployments break this coupling:
- Decoupled release cycles — Each team deploys when their work is ready, not when a central release train departs.
- Reduced risk — A faulty deployment affects only one micro frontend. The rest of the application continues to work.
- Faster feedback — Teams get production feedback sooner. They are not waiting for other teams to complete their work.
- Organizational enablement — Team autonomy becomes real when teams control their own deployment cadence.
The goal is that a team can deploy their micro frontend in minutes, without approval from other teams, and with confidence that they will not break the rest of the application.
Decoupling Release Cycles
Section titled “Decoupling Release Cycles”To achieve independent deployments, the system must be designed so that:
- Micro frontends are independently deployable units — Each has its own build artifact, version, and deployment pipeline.
- Integration is loose — The shell or composition layer loads micro frontends at runtime. A new version of one micro frontend does not require rebuilding others.
- Contracts are stable — Interfaces between micro frontends (props, events, APIs) are versioned and backward-compatible. See versioning for managing compatibility.
Teams ship on their own schedule. The search team might deploy multiple times per day; the checkout team might deploy weekly. The system accommodates both.
Deployment Strategies for Micro Frontends
Section titled “Deployment Strategies for Micro Frontends”The same strategies used for backend services apply to micro frontends:
Blue-Green Deployments
Section titled “Blue-Green Deployments”Two identical environments (blue and green) run in parallel. Deploy the new version to the inactive environment, validate it, then switch traffic. Instant rollback is possible by switching back.
For micro frontends, blue-green typically applies at the CDN or gateway level: route traffic to the new set of assets, then flip the switch.
Canary Releases
Section titled “Canary Releases”Route a small percentage of traffic to the new version. Monitor errors, latency, and business metrics. Gradually increase the percentage. If issues appear, route traffic back to the old version.
Canary is particularly useful for high-traffic micro frontends where you want to validate behavior before full rollout.
Progressive Rollouts
Section titled “Progressive Rollouts”Similar to canary but with more control. Roll out by percentage, by region, by user segment, or by feature flag. Allows fine-grained control over who sees the new version.
Feature Flags for Gradual Exposure
Section titled “Feature Flags for Gradual Exposure”Feature flags decouple deployment from release. Deploy the new code to production but keep it hidden behind a flag. Enable it for internal users, then beta users, then everyone. If problems arise, disable the flag without redeploying.
Feature flags work well with micro frontends when the shell or a configuration service controls which version or variant of a micro frontend is shown.
Infrastructure Requirements
Section titled “Infrastructure Requirements”Independent deployments demand specific infrastructure:
Separate Build Pipelines per Micro Frontend
Section titled “Separate Build Pipelines per Micro Frontend”Each micro frontend needs its own CI/CD pipeline. When team A pushes changes, only A’s pipeline runs. No shared monolith build that blocks everyone. See CI/CD strategies for pipeline design.
CDN Deployment and Cache Invalidation
Section titled “CDN Deployment and Cache Invalidation”Micro frontends are typically static assets (JavaScript, CSS, HTML). They are deployed to a CDN for low latency and high availability. Each micro frontend has its own URL or path prefix.
Cache invalidation is critical. When you deploy a new version, users must receive it. Strategies:
- Versioned filenames —
checkout.abc123.jschanges with every build. No invalidation needed; cache naturally serves new content. - Cache busting via query string —
checkout.js?v=1.2.3— Less reliable; some CDNs ignore query strings. - Explicit CDN invalidation — Purge specific paths after deploy. Adds latency to the release process.
Versioned filenames are the most reliable. They also enable long cache times for better performance.
Container-Based Deployments
Section titled “Container-Based Deployments”For server-side composition (SSR, edge rendering), each micro frontend may run in its own container. Deploy containers independently, scale them independently, and roll back by reverting to a previous container image.
Rollback Strategies
Section titled “Rollback Strategies”When a deployment introduces a bug, you need to roll back quickly. For micro frontends:
Rollback One MF Without Affecting Others
Section titled “Rollback One MF Without Affecting Others”Because each micro frontend is deployed independently, you can roll back just the affected one. Revert to the previous version in the CDN or redeploy the previous container. Other micro frontends are untouched.
Version Pinning
Section titled “Version Pinning”The shell can pin to specific versions of each micro frontend. If the latest version of checkout has a bug, the shell configuration can be updated to load the previous version. This provides a quick rollback without redeploying the micro frontend itself.
Automated Rollback
Section titled “Automated Rollback”Monitor error rates and performance. If they exceed thresholds after a deployment, automatically revert to the previous version. Requires instrumentation and automation but reduces Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR).
Environment Management
Section titled “Environment Management”Staging Environments
Section titled “Staging Environments”Each micro frontend should have a staging environment that mirrors production. Deploy to staging before production. Integration tests and manual QA run against the full composed application.
Preview Environments per MF
Section titled “Preview Environments per MF”For pull request validation, teams can deploy a preview build of their micro frontend. The shell loads the preview version alongside production versions of others. Allows testing changes in isolation before merging.
Preview environments are especially valuable in a micro frontend setup because they let teams validate their slice without spinning up the entire system.
Configuration and Feature Flags
Section titled “Configuration and Feature Flags”Use environment-specific configuration for API endpoints, feature flags, and behavior. Each environment (dev, staging, prod) has its own configuration. Micro frontends read this at build time or runtime as appropriate.
Summary
Section titled “Summary”Independent deployments are the cornerstone of micro frontend value:
- Decouple release cycles — Teams ship on their own schedule
- Use deployment strategies — Blue-green, canary, progressive rollout, feature flags
- Provide infrastructure — Separate pipelines, CDN deployment, proper cache invalidation
- Plan rollback — Per-micro-frontend rollback, version pinning, automated revert
- Manage environments — Staging, preview environments, environment-specific config
For pipeline setup and testing strategies, see CI/CD strategies. For managing versions across deployments, see versioning. For the organizational context that makes independent deployment possible, see team autonomy.
Go Deeper in the Book
This topic is covered in depth in Chapter 7 of Micro Frontends Architecture for Scalable Applications, with detailed examples, diagrams, and production-ready patterns.