NetSuite as a business automation platform comes with many out-of-the-box features which are ready to be used as-is or can be customized to fit your business's unique needs. It also allows for the development of new features and extensive customizations. But how does one test these customizations for bugs and issues without affecting your live system? This can be done through a Sandbox account. As the name suggests, a NetSuite Sandbox account is your virtual playground. It is a mirror image of your production account, having the same configurations, customization, and data as of a specified date, but does not process external transactions such as payments or email campaigns. A NetSuite Sandbox is all about risk mitigation; it allows you to test new customizations before deployment, or changes to existing features without impacting business processes.
What are the benefits of a Sandbox account?
An ideal standing environment to test new customizations before deployment and avoid expensive application rewrites
Fix bugs in existing customizations
Test third-party integrations that are not originally built for NetSuite
Train employees on new or existing business processes
Test the effects of form additions, record deletions and transaction entries
What are the types of Sandbox accounts?
Development account: A development account comes with the same features and NetSuite-provisioned SuiteApps as your production account, but lacks the customizations or production data. A development account is used specifically for testing customizations and integrations and can be populated with data for this purpose. It can be shared with external partners for development without having to divulge sensitive company information.
Premium Sandbox account: Standard Sandbox accounts are designed for end-to-end testing for smaller businesses. They typically handle lower traffic than production accounts. For business dealing with large volumes of data or requiring high performance, a Premium Sandbox would be more suitable. In such cases, a Premium Sandbox will closely replicate a production account to support high-volume automated performance testing. As with a Standard Sandbox, the Premium version contains the same configurations, customizations and data as the production account.
