[innomatics]

>A stack is spawned from a database backup and once it passes tests, replaces the previous one.

I like this approach, although risky if you mean you routinely replace the production db.

My preferred setup is to automate restores into a pre-prod environment, apply data masking and run tests there. It's not a replacement for full DR exercises, but at least it automates the backup verification process as part of your build system.

[dougpa]

It puts you 95% of the way there while providing many side benefits. This is what my team is targeting. Prod deployments are 0-downtime, but all the other deployments are fresh.