Abstract: A data processing system implements scalable, secure, and reliable targeted release (TR) deployments of updates in cloud-based service. The TR deployment framework is provided that solves the technical problem of facilitating deployment of updates to targeted release customers. TR customers are associated with pre-deployment requirements (PDRs) associated with accreditation and/or validation tasks that must be completed before the update may be deployed to the customer base of the TR customers. A subset of the TR customer base is provided with segregated access to complete these accreditation tasks and/or validation tasks before the update is provided to the remainder of the userbase of the TR customer. This approach ensures that the industry standards and/or customer requirements are met before the update is deployed to the entire userbase of the TR customer.

Abstract: A method and system for analyzing a proximity between a first user population and a second user population includes receiving a request to perform a proximity analysis between the first user population and the second user population, accessing data related to the first user population and the second user population, providing the data related to the first user population and the second user population as input to a machine-learning (ML) model for analyzing the data to determine the proximity between the first user population and the second user population, receiving from the ML model as an output at least one of a composite proximity score between the first user population and the second user population, and providing display data relating to the output to a visualization mechanism for display. The composite proximity score may be calculated based on multiple characteristics and/or comparison metrics.