Advantages of having a third instance

[Community Alums]

We currently have two instances and have gone live with Change as we're still working on Incident and Problem. I've noticed that only having two instances can be a little tricky as I can't just use dev as a sandbox to just test things as I often have to remember what I did and then undo them. I'm looking at convincing my manager that we need a third instance and looking for some reasons to justify the cost.

Those that have three instances, can you please give me some reasons and advantages of having a third instances? Those that have only two instances, can you please tell me if it's hindered your development in any way or if it's been sufficient for you?

Thanks,

Aryanos

[TrevorK]

We have three instances as well.

There is some stuff you can do by using the SN Sandbox to play around in, but we find it limiting because it is missing things like Orchestration and many other pieces.

One area we like having a third instance is when we upgrade versions. We have an instance where we can continually test the upgraded product (we have to get feedback/testing from a large number of groups), while we maintain a dedicated DEV instance that can be used for ongoing development work, fixes, etc... This allows us to have the upgrade going and still be able to support our existing environment. With the SN product lifecycle being so rapid, it is tough to lock down our production instance from development twice a year for 1-2 months each time. We also maintain the development instance to be the old version for a month or two so we can investigate issues and determine whether it existed before or was a result of the upgrade.

For example, right now we have Eureka in our Sandbox but Dublin everywhere else. We are still rolling out Dublin based features and fixes, and will have those new features cloned over/retested before we go live with Eureka.

If you can do a true production development freeze during upgrades, I can see two instances being fine. We cannot because there is a constant demand for development/tweaks/etc... I really cannot see how someone can manage easily upgrading instances when they only have two unless they do a production development freeze.during that time.

[Community Alums]

Thanks Trevor, we can't do a true development freeze as well as we'll always be looking to add new things or fix outstanding issues. Upgrading with only two instances can be tricky and your example of why having three instances for upgrades definitely helps my case to get a third instance.

[randrews]

For proper release procedures a third instance is really required... you need a Dev, Test, and prod

Production:         NO explanation requiered

Dev:                             this is where all development occurs and updates are pushed into update sets.   <here you verify that if they asked for an apple you didn't build an orange>

Test:                             This is where you test your ability to move your development from one instance to another... everything is packaged properly.

without a Test instance you are locked down to not being able to test your update sets and verify that when rolled into a new instance they don't break existing items or not.

Nice to haves:        

Sandbox:                   Here you can do anything you want turn on/off plug ins play with workflows etc and just see what you can do.

Stage:                             This is kept as an EXACT mirror of production.   this way if a production issue occurs you can duplicate the issue in stage without having to create production tickets that will mess up reporting

Upgrade:                     This can be kept on the newest release to test functionality and compatibility with the newer software releases of Service Now.

i believe the cost of instances is directly related to the number of licenses you have and so not every one can have six <or even 3> instances but if you CAN you should push for the base 3 as a minimum and 4-6 are REALLY nice to have.

[Community Alums]

Thanks Doug, it looks like most people have 3 or more instances in their environment. We currently have less < 100 licences allocated so far so we'll have to pay for the third instance. Thanks again for your feedback.

[randrews]

no worries at all with that few people, it really depends on how many Unlicensed users you are supporting.. i would find out the breakpoint to get a 3'rd instance and do some selling of the service catalog to get more fulfillment people in with a license!! <Grin>