I'm not the person you're responding to, but having the same software and hardware is possible (most of the time), but production environment is a living thing.

I'm not the person you're responding to, but having the same software and hardware is possible (most of the time), but production environment is a living thing. To simulate production you need the same data and interaction you have in production, and that's quite difficult to do in many systems, if only for regulatory reasons (PII, PCI and friends).