Dynamic pacing for service upgrades

A method for dynamically pacing upgrades to software service deployments in multi-tenant environments, the method comprising:

• identifying a pace specified by a tenant at which to proceed with an upgrade to an initial deployment of the software service associated with the tenant, wherein the initial deployment of the software service comprises a plurality of service components and is associated with a service identifier used by service applications to access the initial deployment of the software service, wherein the specified pace is specified via upgrade controls including at least an option for specifying which service components to proceed with applying the upgrade to first;
• launching an upgraded deployment:
• while the upgrade progresses incrementally in accordance with the pace:
• linking a content database to both the initial deployment and the upgraded deployment to provide access to content in the content database;
• and
• resolving the service identifier to the initial deployment of the software service such that the service applications may access the initial deployment of the software service using the service identifier;
• and
• resolving an interim service identifier that differs from the service identifier to the upgraded deployment of the software service such that the service applications may access the upgraded deployment of the software service using the interim service identifier;
• and
• upon completing the upgrade:
• decommissioning the interim service identifier;
• de-linking the content database from the initial deployment;
• and
• resolving the service identifier to the upgraded deployment of the software service such that the service applications may access the upgraded deployment of the software service using the service identifier.