I know this is an old post, but I found it during the search, so I thought that I would add some of my knowledge if other people come here, wanting more information.
Michelle got most of this right, but I would like to fix a few things, if possible. First, the QA server usually refers to a machine that processes the QA process and runs software that helps create environments that can test different branches of code as part of the QA process. This can vary from switch environments and check branch, rebuild all machines that match production environments, and deploy code for them. A basic tenet of QA Server is to help create QA environments for testing.
Standard environments / Pre-Production typically refers to one or more environments that correspond, as far as possible, to the production environment to which the code will be applied. Again, it can be as simple as a machine with software settings that match the versions of the production machine, on a mini-farm of web servers, where several machines and databases are connected together in a way that matches the production environment. The goal, again, is to have a place that is consistent with production but not production, and again for testing and quality assurance purposes.
I hope this helps anyone who is not yet sure about the answers to the original.
Shafiq jetha
source share