Google Inbox has introduced a new feature to the market – versioning of online applications. I haven’t encountered this anywhere else.
The idea is that each new version of an online software like email gets deployed on a separate cluster, and transitioning from the old version to the new one is done with the user’s confirmation of their desire to do so. After confirmation, some data migrates between servers and the user starts working with version +1. Theoretically, there should be a mechanism to return to the old version (-1), but I can’t find such a button yet – apparently, it’s only available to those who contact support.
Typically, online services prefer to change transparently and imperceptibly to the user. Suddenly, new settings appear in the options, etc. If something goes wrong, you can’t roll back. If there is a migration to a new version with user confirmation, it usually happens not for mass services (like “hosting”) and, typically, only between a couple of versions – “very old” (“old UI”) and “brand new” (“new UI”), after which (brand new+1, brand new+2, etc.) changes are unnoticeable to the user.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 