Simply put, a production environment is where the latest versions of software, products, or updates are pushed live to the intended users. Think of it as a final phase of production. This is the environment where the end user can see, experience, and interact with the new product. All testing is completed before this point, and all bugs are squashed. Whereas a development environment may contain several different versions of a product or update being worked on and tested, a production environment contains just the final version of the product in order to avoid any confusion or security vulnerabilities.
What is the difference between a production environment and development and stage environments?
The best way to understand the differences between a development, stage, and production environment is to think of it in terms of a band – the practice, dress rehearsal, and live performance. So what does this mean exactly?In this analogy, the development environment is like the band’s practice setting. This is where a band would come up with new songs, write and refine the music, practice, and hash out any issues. A development environment is essentially what is on the development team’s computers. It’s where the developers are writing their code, making code updates, and where all their commits and branches exist. The development environment does not affect what the end user sees. Instead, it allows development to try out new features and updates before pushing them forward to deployment. A lot of preliminary testing is done at this point before moving to the next environment – the stage environment.
Like with a band’s final dress rehearsal before a live performance, any major issues must have been already addressed and resolved before hitting the stage environment (also known as a pre-production environment). The product version in this environment should be as close to the real thing as possible, and should nearly mirror what the end users would see in the production environment. This stage can often be rather quick, as most bugs and issues should have already been hashed out in the development environment. Here is where the final testing of upcoming product versions takes place before they are readied for deployment in the production environment. A good example is a beta version of a videogame – there may be some minor bugs you encounter, but overall, it works how the game is intended to be played.
This means the production environment is the live performance. This is what the users came for, and they are expecting a good show. The production environment refers to where the software or products have been made live for use of the intended users. Once something is in the production environment, any and all bugs need to have already been fixed and the product or update must work perfectly. All testing is done in the development and staging environments, whereas new products and updates are launched in the production environment. If any bugs exist in the production environment, they will be seen by the user. And nobody wants an angry or frustrated user.
What are the benefits of a production environment strategy?
An infrastructure strategy with development, stage, and production environments allows teams to build, test, and deploy products in different phases to ensure high quality products for their users. With developers building in a separate development environment, it allows them to experiment with new features, updates, and improvements without affecting the end product. The stage environment allows your team to test a near-final version of the product to ensure proper functioning and a good user experience before the product or update is deployed. Once the product or update is in the production environment, all testing has been completed, all bugs fixed, and it is now ready for the user.
This type of infrastructure allows teams to fully control the quality of their product releases while encouraging improvements and innovation. It is helpful for effectively tracking a new product or updates progress through development, testing, and deployment while also ensuring the end user is provided with the best possible experience.
