Cloud computing will change the traditional software software testing industry?

The cloud offers new opportunities for enterprise developers and suppliers of related services and tools. For the testing community, as they face new challenges, they will also be given new tools to address the key issues Soasta CEO says: Can it be officially launched?

"Testers must be able to test all levels efficiently-from applications to cloud service providers," said Vik Chaudhary, vice president of keynote systems, who is based in San Marco, California. ”

According to IDC, a market research firm, spending on cloud services will increase by three times times to $42 billion by 2012. According to IDC, cloud computing accounts for 25% of all it consumption and will rise to one-third per cent by 2013.

The concept of IDC distinguishes between "cloud services" and "cloud computing". Cloud services, they argue, refer to "products, services, and programs that can be delivered and used in real time on the web." In contrast, cloud computing is defined as an infrastructure or software system for developing and deploying "products, services, and programs that can be delivered and used in real time on the network."

Chaudhary The following explanation: "Schwab, Travelocity and other enterprises have been developing their own data centers for many years." The key issue is to manage the highly scalable applications and ensure the best customer experience. To this end, they employ a large number of people to do monitoring, testing and adding services. "The recent development of cloud facilities, such as Google App Engine, allows other companies to run their apps on Google's facilities." "This means that the threshold for deploying applications in the cloud is already fairly low. You no longer need data centers or operations teams, but you can go all out to develop applications and functionality. This is a paradigm shift in application development. ”

For testers, this also means a change. Chaudhary For example: "You build an application that can be used by BlackBerrys and hosted by a cloud Company (Salesforce), Salesforce to run a certain amount of testing to ensure that the service is working properly." But, for the application itself, is it running on 1 phones or 50 of phones? Do you need to load a very large page? "In addition, cloud hosting companies might use Third-party services to improve performance." For test results, the end-user experience will be influenced by companies, cloud vendors, and all other relevant groups.

Reduce test costs

Lounibos says the Soasta company in Mountain View, Calif., has a growing customer base, with no servers of its own, all operating in a cloud environment, "although most of their operations are more traditional; they work with hosting service providers, The Cloud field is only moderately deep. However, he also pointed out that cloud based testing is also a way for companies to understand the cloud and reduce the cost of testing.

"Traditional customers think testing is a bottomless pit for throwing money. They have been looking for ways to reduce costs. For companies, the main problem with cloud computing is whether it is reliable enough. And the tests are different. Testing in a cloud environment is only a simulation of the real situation, and it does not involve production-related issues. But it can actually cut costs. ”

Through cloud computing, Lounibos says, testers "can access and use a lot of computing resources, which is what the tests need." The idea is so tempting: You can have 125 servers in 5-8 minutes, but only to pay for the test time. You no longer need to prepare a large test lab for Web applications. ”

For example, you can use the Soasta cloudtest Virtual Cloud Environment test lab or device. It supports load, performance, functionality, and web Ui/ajax testing.

The Keynote company provides kite for testing and analyzing Web applications on the Internet cloud (Keynote Internet testing environment). With kite, you can test at any point in the desktop and geographically different locations.

Chaudhary that the performance testing of Internet applications needs to be carried out in a cloud environment in particular. "For Internet applications, this is not just a matter of application itself, it involves all the relevant suppliers." You can't decide whether a user is using a DSL or a dial-up or a mobile device. Performance testing is inherently dependent on the environment. ”

For mobile applications, Chaudhary that performance testing and functional testing should be done in a cloud environment. "Functional testing also depends on suppliers for mobile applications," he said. You have a screen that you can log on to, even if the application works, the size of the Web page, the size of the display, and all the vendors will have an impact. "By testing in a cloud environment, companies can more easily test hundreds of devices and save more costs," he said.

"You want to test the network performance, server performance, database performance, software performance associated with the application," says Dennis Drogseth, vice president of Enterprise Management Associates, a marketing research firm. And how it caches on the client. If you have only one application running at a certain location, you can certainly test it in one place. But for Amazon or Facebook, applications are distributed in many different and unpredictable locations. This is obviously much more complicated than running a single server based application test script. ”

The problem we face is to run tests on various components and geographies to determine the problem, and "the Enterprise's application development is often not able to use this environment." As a result, Keynote (as well as other similar companies) provides these testers with an environment that allows them to use the Internet cloud and all possible scenarios, using real networks and desktops. ”

Requirements for new test tools

Drogseth that new test tools are now needed. "You can no longer use the test tools prepared for a LAN or stand-alone server for cloud computing." So, we need tools that let us know about issues like networking and desktops. We need to get developers into the network environment. ”

Lounibos also said, "in the next five years, all test tool vendors will enter the cloud domain." The next generation of testing companies will be produced. Cloud computing is a market with huge potential, because that's how we use services. ”