This document discusses the quick deployment functionality that has been introduced in SnapShot recently. 

Quick Deploy provides the capability to execute a production deployment without running Apex Test classes. Salesforce requires the following before a quick deployment can be executed:

• An successful Validation (Check for Errors...) executed
• Validation should have been executed within the last 4 days
• No metadata should have been changed in the production Org after the Validation was executed.
• If another package was attempted to be validated or deployed, the current package is no longer valid.

When all of these requirements have been met, you can provide the deployment job ID and deploy the metadata in the previously validated package without having to execute the Apex Classes again. This is a huge time saver and compresses your outage window drastically.

To take advantage of this feature, launch Quick Deploy Assets from the Studio menu in the Assets SnapShot View. 

This opens the Quick Deploy menu. As part of the initialization, SnapShot will look for a SnapShot Push record that satisfies all the above requirements in the currently logged in Org. If it finds one, it will auto-populate the Deploy ID field with the ID of the successful validation to ready it for Quick Deploy. You can override that value or enter your own deployment ID instead. By default, the deployment time is set to current date/ time. If you prefer to deploy at a later time, please set an appropriate schedule that does not break the Quick Deploy requirements (4 days from validation).

Add your credentials to the mix and let it deploy your metadata to your production Org without going through the hassle of Apex Classes in a rapid, error free manner.

As always, if you have any questions about this feature, please contact Support.