Tradeoffs And Tactics For Test Environments

Discrepancies between test and production environments are the root cause of an alarming number of problems in deployed software. Creating a test environment that's a full replica of the production environment is almost never an option given the staggering costs involved. As a result, application development organizations must weigh the certain costs of a robust test environment against the uncertain costs of future production problems. Two tactics — test environment consolidation and judicious use of virtualization — can reduce the costs of maintaining robust test environments and help application development professionals sleep better at night.