Why Preview Environments Are The New Thing in DevOps

A preview environment allows developers to test code changes in isolation before merging them into the master branch, offering a temporary and feature-specific testing space that mimics production or staging environments. This setup facilitates efficient testing and collaboration among developers, QA engineers, and product managers by providing a unique URL for each feature branch, thus enabling live testing without affecting other features. The benefits of preview environments include increased ownership and autonomy for cross-functional teams, shorter feedback cycles, faster delivery of product updates, improved review processes, enhanced product quality, and reduced costs due to their ephemeral nature. Despite the advantages, setting up and maintaining these environments can be complex and resource-intensive for DevOps teams. Tools like Qovery aim to simplify this process by integrating preview environments with platforms like AWS, making it easier for DevOps teams to manage these environments while still reaping their numerous benefits.