What is a Salesforce Environment (or Org)?
In Salesforce terminology, environments are the same as organisations so, an instance of say Force.com is an environment but also known as an organisation or org.
- Orgs can be used for Development, Testing and Production.
- Each Org is based on a Salesforce Edition which contains specific functionality, objects, limits and storage (See https://www.salesforce.com/uk/editions-pricing/sales-cloud/ for details).
- Not all Orgs are enabled with advanced features and these features will need to be requested by contacting Salesforce.com
Types of Orgs
As mentioned above, there are three types of orgs:
- Development Org – Develop and enhance Salesforce functionality without impacting LIVE Salesforce environments.
- Testing Org – Production/Development environments used for QA and Testing functionality prior to deployment to LIVE.
- Production Org – LIVE Salesforce environments with active business critical data.
Testing Org
Prior to the deployment of your brand new app to LIVE or to your Customers, migrate your app to a dedicated testing environment where you can perform Integration Testing with large sets of data, do Security Testing for multiple users and profiles to identify any defects or bugs.
In some companies it can be best practice to create a Salesforce Sandbox which allows you to test using a copy/like-LIVE environment.

A Certified Salesforce Administrator, Salesforce Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant, ISTQB® Certified Tester Advanced Level, Jitterbit Foundations and Jitterbit Core Certified QA Test Automation Manager who is also an experienced creative all-rounder with enthusiasm and the proven ability to understand client needs and deliver satisfying solutions. A thirst for new technology and modern Quality Assurance and Testing techniques keeps me aspiring to learn at every opportunity. My current role is at Publicis Sapient who are an official Salesforce Platinum Partner. Publicis Sapient provide Salesforce expertise and strategic thinking that enables organisations to transform their business to Cloud-based technology.
