Maintaining control over restricted data during deployment to cloud computing environments

A computerized method for deploying a release to a production environment of a cloud computing environment comprising:

• providing a release specification regarding the release, a release author does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment, wherein the release is at least one of a software update, a software patch, a firmware update, or a firmware patch and the release specification describes at least how the release cannot make changes that would allow unauthorized access to the restricted data;
• providing access to the release specification;
• receiving the release at the cloud computing environment;
• receiving approval for the release;
• and
• automatically deploying the release to the production environment in response to the approval.

One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

• providing a release specification regarding a release, a release author does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment, wherein the release is at least one of a software update, a software patch, a firmware update, or a firmware patch and the release specification describes at least how the release cannot make changes that would allow unauthorized access to the restricted data;
• providing access to the release specification;
• receiving the release at the cloud computing environment;
• receiving approval for the release;
• and
• automatically deploying the release to the production environment in response to the approval.

A computerized system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more computer storage media storing computer-useable components for deploying a release to a production environment of a cloud computing environment, the computer-useable components comprising:
• a deployment manager that facilitates development of the release by a release author who does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment, the deployment manager receiving the release and a release specification, and storing the release and the release specification in a development storage outside of the cloud computing environment, wherein the release is at least one of a software update, a software patch, a firmware update, or a firmware patch and the release specification describes at least how the release cannot make changes that would allow unauthorized access to the restricted data;
• the development storage for storing the release prior to transferring the release to the cloud computing environment;
• a release storage at the cloud computing environment that receives and stores the release;
• and
• a deployment engine that deploys the release to the production environment of the cloud computing environment in response to receiving an approval of the release.