Re: using live Production as sandbox for training

[Doug Markiewicz <dmarkiew+educause () ANDREW CMU EDU>]

Melissa wrote:
> Can anyone provide ANY insight as to the pros and cons of using a live
> production system for training instead of creating a seperate sandbox
> environment?

Does "live production system" imply the use of live production data as part of the training?  I can certainly see situations where training 
might occur on a production system but in a manner that doesn't provide access to any production data.  The "sandbox" could simply be a 
different database.  It really depends on the specifics.  Completely separate environments for everything you do would be great in a perfect world, but I 
think I'd be pretty happy if folks just didn't use production data for training/testing.

PROS
- Probably easier and less expensive to setup
- Training could more accurately reflect real world

CONS
- Risk of unauthorized access to production data
- Risk of impacting system availability (depending on the nature of the training)