Two Environment (Prod & Non-Prod)

Question

Hi, Why we required two Environment ? Prod & Non-Prod. What are the Pros and cons of having two Environment? Regards Parvinder Singh

arthurburkhardt · Answer

Here you go, free chatGPT answer.

The practice of having two environments - production (Prod) and non-production (Non-Prod) - is quite common in software development and data management, including when using tools like Collibra. The reasons for having these two distinct environments can be described as follows:
1. Risk Mitigation: Changes made directly in a production environment can risk breaking important features if they’re not thoroughly tested first. By testing changes in a non-production environment, you can avoid potential disruptions.
2. Testing: A non-production environment provides a platform to thoroughly test new features, updates, and fixes before they go live in the production environment. This includes system testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing, and other types of testing.
3. Training: Non-production environments are often used for training purposes, allowing users to learn the system without risking changes to live data.
4. Development: The non-production environment can be used by developers to build and test new features.
5. Data Protection: Non-production environments can utilize scrubbed or anonymized data, which helps to protect sensitive information that resides in the production environment.
While there are many advantages to this practice, there can also be some potential drawbacks:
1. Cost: Maintaining two separate environments can be more expensive, as it can require double the resources.
2. Synchronization: Keeping the two environments in sync can be challenging, especially in terms of data. There’s a risk of “drift” where the environments become too different and the non-prod environment is no longer a reliable test bed.
3. Time and Effort: It can take additional time and effort to manage and maintain two separate environments.
Overall, the pros of having a non-production environment usually outweigh the cons, especially for larger systems and organizations where the risk of untested changes causing disruption is high. The best practices of DevOps and Agile methodologies also typically advocate for this kind of separation.

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