Environment

In Relfast, an environment is a logical partition that serves as a container for managing different configurations, feature flags, or rules related to a specific software application or system. Each environment allows serving different values or managing separate rules for the same feature or configuration. Role-based access control measures can be applied to regulate user permissions within these environments. Relfast provides support for creating multiple environments, but they must be associated with the following basic environment types for the purpose of access control:

1. Development Environment: The development environment is where developers write, test, and debug their code. It is the initial stage of the software development process, allowing developers to experiment, implement new features, and fix bugs before moving on to other environments. In the development environment, developers can freely modify configurations and experiment without impacting the production environment.

2. Test Environment: The test environment is dedicated to rigorous testing of the software to identify and fix bugs. It mirrors the production environment but remains isolated from real users. Testing environments may include subsets like unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT), where different levels of testing occur before moving the code to the production environment.

3. Stage Environment: Also known as the pre-production or pre-release environment, the staging environment is an exact replica of the production environment. It is used to test the application with real data and configurations to identify and address any issues before deploying it to the production environment. Staging environments are valuable for verifying that the application functions as expected in a production-like setting.

4. Production Environment: The production environment is the live environment where the software is deployed and accessed by end-users. It is crucial for the application to perform optimally and remain stable in real-world usage. Changes made in other environments, like development or testing, need to go through thorough testing and approval before deployment to the production environment to minimize disruptions to users.

By associating each environment with one of these basic environment types, Relfast allows organizations to implement role-based access controls to regulate user permissions more effectively. This ensures that only authorized users have access to the different environments and helps maintain a secure and controlled software development and deployment process.