GitOps Case Study

Kubernetes GitOps with Progressive Delivery

About the Project

Managing modern, cloud-native applications at scale requires more than just container orchestration — it demands an infrastructure and delivery approach that is automated, auditable, and resilient.

A global SaaS company delivering high-traffic collaboration tools partnered with Spundan to modernize its Kubernetes infrastructure management using GitOps, while adopting Progressive Delivery to safely roll out new features with minimal risk and zero downtime.

The client operated dozens of Kubernetes clusters across AWS and Azure regions, hosting hundreds of microservices. Frequent deployments, manual configurations, and high release risks were resulting in downtime, rollback headaches, and inconsistent environments.

Challenges Faced

Before implementing Kubernetes GitOps with Progressive Delivery, the client faced these key challenges:

Manual Deployments

Changes were pushed manually to clusters, often causing config drift and inconsistencies across environments.

High-Risk Releases

All-or-nothing rollouts meant any deployment failure could impact thousands of active users.

Limited Rollback Options

Rolling back problematic updates required manual intervention and downtime.

No Unified Control

Infrastructure definitions were scattered across local files and cloud consoles, lacking a clear source of truth.

Spundan's Solution

Spundan's cloud-native engineering team designed and implemented a Kubernetes GitOps framework combined with Progressive Delivery, enabling safe, resilient updates with maximum control.

Key solution pillars:

GitOps Toolchain

Integrated FluxCD and ArgoCD for continuous reconciliation — keeping clusters in sync with the declared state in Git repositories.

Progressive Delivery Patterns

Enabled automated canary deployments, blue-green strategies, and feature flag rollouts using tools like Flagger and native Argo Rollouts controllers.

Automated Drift Detection

Deployed continuous drift detection and self-healing to ensure actual cluster state always matches the desired Git state.

Rollback on Demand

Configured instant rollbacks to stable releases directly through Git version control — with no need for manual cluster edits.

Secure Workflows

Enforced RBAC policies, pull request approvals, and code reviews for every infrastructure or application change.

Developer Training

Provided workshops to train development and platform teams in GitOps workflows and progressive delivery best practices.

Implementation Timeline

The program was rolled out in three phases over four months:

1

Assessment & Architecture

Reviewed existing deployment processes and cluster management; designed GitOps and progressive delivery workflows.

2

Pilot Projects

Implemented GitOps and canary releases for select high-traffic services to validate risk mitigation and rollback strategies.

3

Full Rollout

Expanded GitOps and progressive delivery to all clusters and services; integrated automated monitoring and alerting.

Key Outcomes

“With Spundan's GitOps and Progressive Delivery solution, we deploy confidently, recover instantly, and deliver new features without downtime — no more all-or-nothing releases.”
— Head of Platform Engineering, SaaS Client

  100% of Kubernetes infrastructure and workloads version-controlled in Git as a single source of truth.

  Zero configuration drift across clusters due to continuous reconciliation.

  Risk-free rollouts: Canary and blue-green deployments reduced production incident rates by over 70%.

  Mean time to recovery (MTTR) reduced by 50% with instant rollbacks via Git history.

  Developer ownership: Engineering teams manage updates through simple pull requests with full audit trails.

Lessons Learned

Progressive Delivery Builds Confidence

Canary and blue-green rollouts helped teams release features safely without impacting all users at once.

Automation is Non-Negotiable

Continuous reconciliation and automated rollbacks eliminate manual errors and downtime.

Collaboration Wins

GitOps workflows aligned developers and operations on a shared, auditable process.

Conclusion

By combining Kubernetes GitOps with Progressive Delivery, this SaaS leader transformed how it manages cloud-native applications — achieving safer, more reliable deployments, consistent environments, and faster recovery from issues.



Ready to modernize your Kubernetes operations with GitOps and Progressive Delivery? Talk to Spundan's cloud-native experts today

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