# Production vs. Disaster Recovery vs. Testing Environment When designing the ONEWEB architecture, it is important to define **separate environments** to support the full application lifecycle—from development and testing to production operation and business continuity. A typical and recommended approach follows this progression: 1. Applications are developed and validated in a **Testing Environment** 2. Once validated, applications are promoted to the **Production Environment** 3. A **Disaster Recovery Environment** is prepared to ensure continuity in case the Production Environment becomes unavailable This separation helps reduce risk, maintain system stability, and support business‑critical operations. *** ### Production Environment The **Production Environment** is where ONEWEB applications are deployed for actual use by end users.\ This environment is the most critical, as it directly impacts business operations and service availability. {% hint style="info" %} The Production Environment is the environment or server where applications are put into operation for their intended business use. Any issue in this environment may directly affect business performance and users. {% endhint %} When designing the Production Environment, consider the following factors: * **Type of Application**\ Is the application real‑time?\ Does it integrate with other systems?\ How much data is processed?\ Does it operate 24/7? * **Type of Business**\ How critical is the business function supported by the application?\ Who will be affected if the application becomes unavailable? * **User Volume**\ Number of active users and named users accessing the system * **Transaction Volume**\ Expected number of transactions over a defined period (for example, monthly transactions) * **Accepted Downtime**\ How many downtime incidents are acceptable per year, and how long can each outage last? These considerations drive decisions related to availability, performance, and deployment architecture. *** ### Disaster Recovery Environment The **Disaster Recovery (DR) Environment** acts as a backup environment for the Production Environment.\ It is not intended for continuous operation but is activated when the Production Environment encounters serious issues or failures. When designing a Disaster Recovery Environment, consider: * **Recovery Point Objective (RPO)**\ The maximum amount of data that can be lost when switching to the DR Environment * **Recovery Time Objective (RTO)**\ The maximum acceptable time required to restore services in the DR Environment * **Capacity Planning**\ The percentage of Production Environment capacity required when operating in DR mode A well‑designed DR Environment supports business continuity while balancing infrastructure cost. *** ### Testing Environment The **Testing Environment** is used to validate applications before they are released to production.\ This environment supports development testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing. When designing the Testing Environment, consider: * Number of testers or users involved * External systems that need to be integrated during testing * Volume and type of data required for test scenarios The Testing Environment allows changes and experimentation without impacting production users. *** ### Architectural Role of Environments From a ONEWEB architecture perspective: * **Testing Environment** focuses on validation and readiness * **Production Environment** focuses on stability, performance, and availability * **Disaster Recovery Environment** focuses on resilience and business continuity Each environment may use different deployment models (Standalone, High Availability, or Cloud), but all environments should follow consistent architectural principles. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.onewebstack.com/getting-started/installation-guide/plan-your-oneweb-installation/design-oneweb-architecture/production-vs.-disaster-recovery-vs.-testing-environment.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.