When I tell people about an automated staging deployment platform (let's not talk about a company yet, even if that is indeed the ultimate goal), they often ask "what does your product do that heroku doesn't?". That answer is simple, it's in the vision of the product. Heroku is production platform, and everything is geared toward great performance, ease of setup and scalability. IMHO, only one of these characteristics is essential to a staging platform: ease of setup.
I think the real added value of a successful staging platform will come from staging specific features, like making everything automated, easing feedback gathering, one-click staging/prod mirroring, etc. Docker and other isolation or virtualization technologies are most certainly a step in the good direction, but that's precisely what I'm trying to mesure with that survey and the discussion around it.
I think the real added value of a successful staging platform will come from staging specific features, like making everything automated, easing feedback gathering, one-click staging/prod mirroring, etc. Docker and other isolation or virtualization technologies are most certainly a step in the good direction, but that's precisely what I'm trying to mesure with that survey and the discussion around it.