Difference between/use of dev.site.com and beta.site.com

Question

Hello,

Am trying to implement a few deployment policies in my organization. Usually, we do all the development on localhost and then simply deploy the site to the production site (i.e. site.com). Am trying to place a rule to first deploy the site to say beta.site.com, test it completely and then deploy it to the final site. Now I know many companies use dev.site.com, then beta.site.com and then finally site.com.

Am wondering what exactly is the purpose of dev.site.com and then beta.site.com. Will be both be active at the same time or is it that during development we should use dev.site.com and then later beta.site.com? What exactly is the use of a staging server/site then?

Please feel free to ask if anything is unclear. Thankyou for your time and patience.

Answer 1

This is totally up to interpretation and there are no binding rules, but everywhere I've been it's been along these lines:

• dev. for the development environment, a full mirror of the site/project/product, to which developers upload changes to find out whether things work at all, and where they can test new technologies / products / versions / settings. Often updated with data from the public version (if one exists)

• beta. for staging versions that have been tested by the developers, but need "higher-level" user testing / review before going public, already available to a wider circle than just the developers (colleagues, the whole team, beta testers, the public, etc.)

Answer 2

I would expect that your dev site would primarily be for internal Q/A. For a site like this, I would restrict the incoming IP addresses to those of your own company so your development site isn't exposed to the general public accidentally.