Environments

To get an accredited system (aside from Sandbox), you need to adhere to JSP 604 (Defence Manual for ICT) rule set.

Environments can be established for specific purposes which reflect the level of governance, accreditation and Authority to Operate (AtO) required.

Sandbox/Tech Spike

A Sandbox environment is a test space for customers to perform Proof of Concepts and trial their applications and/or Cloud functionality.

Sandbox is not suitable for live data - it is test data only. All data will be anonymised, not personal, and cannot be identifiable as MoD or Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) data.

Development/Test

A Dev/Test environment is designed for development/testing environments and can hold MoD test data, but not personal data. This environment has fewer restrictions than Production environments and provides the appropriate level of access for DevOps teams to develop and test their systems.

Pre-Production

A Pre-Prod environment is the staging area where the final validation of work is completed before deployment and can hold live data. Privileges are restricted to prevent users from inadvertently modifying what will transition to a live environment.

Production

A Prod environment is the live environment that can hold live data and therefore, is the most locked down account with the lowest level of permissions (to prevent users from inadvertently modifying what is a live service.)