Doing new things is fantastic, but you can't ignore the core features to focus on shiny objects, often far more complex compared to the basic scenario I'm requesting for staging.
I understand, and all this feedback may be part of the problem. And the further you get/move away from the norms, or what I often refer to as best practices, the more this becomes exponentially more difficult for everyone from the top down.
When you break the mold just to break the mold, you now have to create additional documentation and re-educate clients. Your clients also have to re-educate website owners.
enhance level
Documentation has never been Enhance's focus. I'm still awaiting documentation on a manual website recovery from a few months back, specifically when the source server is offline and we need to restore the website to a new server.
client level
Now we have to deal with these new features and the need for proper documentation and set up (Cloudflare Beta), and standardized expectations. You'd be surprised how much website owners complain when things are different, which falls on our shoulders as operators.
website owner level
When a website owner, as most are, is familiar with basic requirements like staging (a basic need, like water) and backups, that'll restore if a server goes down. The fact I cannot restore a website to any server I want is frightening. You know the core, basic requirements.
Staging but not staging (needs)
Backups but not backups (needs)
But lots and lots of shiny objects (wants)
Significant difference between needs and wants
And hell, I'm all for shiny objects. But there is a significant disconnect when I can't onboard clients and scale because basic core requirements are missing, incomplete or non-functional.
And this isn't even really feedback, I'm just reiterating what I've seen and experienced working with hundreds of hosting companies and thousands upon thousands of website owners. Basically like a food, water, and shelter scenario, the shit we need to survive and scale in the hosting industry.
Core Requirement
Priority 10
Difficulty 1
Version 1
Click Create Staging, same server, near-instant
- copy database
- copy data
- update DNS
- done, back to work
Click Push to Live, same server, instant
- swap producton and staging domains
- no DNS changes
- done
Success Requirements
Website owners can consistently
- create basic staging
- push basic staging to production
- success
Version 2
Shift to new features and cover all of the wants that affect smaller audience segments.
