Do you mean "ODBC and Remote Views" or "DBC and Remote Views" ?
But that doesn't matter.
Good point is you are working on copy of the live data in your developoment. You could also think about the third instance for beta testing. And you'll need such instance for the new software deployment testing.
Each major system upgrade must consist of several steps:
1) Development
2) Alpha testing
3) Release creation
4) Installation procedure preparation and testing
5) Beta release and testing
And we are at the day D now:
6) Full system backup
7) Release installation
8) Data conversion and updates
Optional steps:
9) Full backup
10) Dry run
11) Check results
12) Based on results you have to restore either before point 9) or 7) at worst case.
And you may add more additional steps depending on your environment and other hints from experts. Everything depends on your software quality, company rules, team quality etc. Also important is the fact how critical is updated system.
