For a new version of a containerized application ready for production, what deployment strategy should be employed?

The choice of using canary deployments with Cloud Monitoring for performance issues is a strategic approach that allows for gradual exposure of the new version of the application to users. This method minimizes risk by enabling the team to monitor the performance and behavior of the new version before a full rollout.

In a canary deployment, a small subset of users is directed to the new version while the majority continue using the stable version. This way, if any issues arise, they only affect a small percentage of users. The integration of Cloud Monitoring enhances this strategy by providing real-time insights into application performance, resource usage, and error rates, allowing the team to respond quickly to any potential problems before scaling the new version to the entire user base.

On the other hand, blue/green deployments present an alternative but involve maintaining two identical environments—one for the current version and one for the new version. While this method does allow for seamless switching between versions and can also be monitored for performance, it typically requires more resources and complexity in managing separate environments.

Using kubectl for deployment and Config Connector for traffic management focuses on orchestration and configuration management in Kubernetes environments, which, while valid, doesn't comprehensively address the gradual introduction of the new version to users or the specific performance monitoring aspect