Preview Service

With the launch of a preview version of a service users are given the opportunity to get to know about an upcoming service while at the same time it allows GWDG to gather some early experience with the service in interaction with the intended audience. The experience can then be used to refine the later version of the service. This provides more useful experience than just “internal” tests.

The preview service allows early access to a planned service while some aspects of the service necessary for its later long-term operation are either still missing or still subject to change, especially regarding the dimensions of the service. In particular this can mean deficiencies in:

• regarding the privacy statement for the service
• links to documentation and support contacts
• references to websites and other directories within GWDG.

Especially important are:

• no backup of user data,
• no promise of continuous availability of the service
• support regarding specific problems because we are in the process of gathering experiences ourselves.

In contrasat to a “beta phase” of a service which would result in that service graduating into a regular service, this service will remain as a preview service even after the regular version of the service has been launched separately.

It is planned to keep the “preview” service after the launch of the regular service and use it to give users an opportunity to get early access to new software versions or configuration changes before they are implemented in the regular version. Additionally the “preview” service can be used as a place for users to test out changes with their own data or configurations without affecting their data in the regular service.