What is a Production Environment?

A production environment is where the latest versions of software, products, or updates are pushed into live operation for end users. It differs from test and staging environments in that it hosts new applications for real-time use by users. While testing was once mainly performed in staging environments, feature flags now enable developers to conduct various tests and checks in production settings. This allows for better releases as user data and feedback can be gathered, and bugs not apparent in artificial staging environments can be uncovered. Some examples of what can be done in a production environment include A/B testing, canary testing, application monitoring and performance testing, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Feature flags make production testing safer by allowing developers to enable or disable specific functionalities without the need for code deployment. LaunchDarkly's feature management platform helps teams conduct safe tests in production environments at a high frequency and large scale.