Right after the emergence of cloud computing, the idea of using the technology to perform various types of automated tested also surfaced. The most basic example of this is using cloud environments to test software; creating simulated web traffic, for example. However, there are many other specific types of tests which can also be carried out, all of which are pretty much brilliant to say the least.
Arguably, the single greatest benefit (in most cases) of cloud testing is its affordability. In other words, a business can test something like “their new site or app” without having to risk much in the way of principal costs and/or labor. Furthermore, because we’re talking about services that only dictate that you pay for what you use, there’s no need for expensive up-front purchases (or tedious IT integration of these costly elements). This is often referred to as “testing on demand”, and it undoubtedly gives certain businesses a distinct advantage when it comes to carrying out either targeted testing or even “bulk” varieties.
Whenever you set up a new capability in your IT department it’s generally understood that what you’re doing is integrating it into your basic infrastructure. One of the coolest things about cloud testing is that it allows an organization to simply use the provider’s infrastructure instead of having to reconfigure their own. Moreover, because your average cloud provider is going to have much more powerful resources at their disposal, you can get your test results back much quicker. In situations where you’re either rushing to meet a deadline or are perhaps dealing with a really large volume of items to test, this extra power is going to be a true blessing.
Aside from your standard testing costs, cloud testing also eliminates “tool license” expenditures. Yes, some testing tools can be quite pricey; in fact, sometimes the testing budget will get “hammered” by the cost of this alone. The great thing about some of these “on demand” cloud testing services is that the price and use of the various tools are usually included. Basically, you can count on having several key items at your disposal which would otherwise eat up the “lion’s share” of your allotted funds for testing.
Right behind this, trailing very closely, there’s the notion that you don’t have to bring any “tool experts” on board (although that’s always nice, when possible). Simply put, these specialists, while quite useful, can really cause a testing budge to become quickly inflated to a dangerous point. Since most cloud vendors who are offering testing services tend to take care of these things beforehand, the savings are passed directly on to the buyer; i.e. – your company.
There’s also something to be said about the time that businesses might be devoting toward setting up their own private testing solution vs. simply going with that which is offered by a cloud vendor. Needless to say, you could end up spending a very large amount of time just setting up a complete testing suite. Then of course afterwards, there’s no guarantee that it would actually function in the exact manner as intended. /Because cloud computing is so scalable (and stable) there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to setting up a testing environment – you just basically sign up, pay, then plug-and-play (or, “plug-and-work”).
Flexibility is also a great feature of most cloud testing services. In other words, you have a great deal of both individual choices you can make, as well as the ability to eliminate those packaged components which you feel aren’t really needed. By the same token, you can usually build a customized cloud testing package based on the resources which you really need (or might require) and that’s very handy, to say the least.
As apps continue to increase in their complexity, so do the tests required to make sure they’re fully functional. The main problems seem to be that these apps are becoming both distributed as well as very dynamic in nature. In turn, this creates a very unusual set of circumstances where there might be no conventional way to actually test such an app, outside of relying on cloud testing that is.
Also, cloud testing affords the possibility of carrying out real-time tests on certain things, which is extremely useful. By using such a feature it is possible to identify future problems / risks which might crop up due to “bottlenecking”; in essence, this can not only save a business lots of money, it can also help them to build a more solid long-term reputation as a provider of quality software.
It has also been said that one of the biggest problems with software testing is the actual quality of the tests themselves. While this might seem like a no-brainer, the truth is that a significant number of instances have been reported (between 30%-35%) which seem to indicate that inaccurate configurations are responsible for testing failures. Once again, because cloud testing vendors tend to spend a lot of time making absolutely sure that their environments are both properly configured as well as stable, you’re much more likely to get an accurate response (than if you tried to pull it off yourself, in-house).
As you can clearly see, the benefits of cloud testing are numerous and every business really owes it to themselves to check out what it has to offer. Not only are we talking about a highly affordable service here, but we’re also dealing with a very powerful one. Furthermore, if you’re an IT professional you should strongly consider taking the time to get certified in some branch of cloud testing if at all possible. Why, you ask? Well, because cloud testing is clearly a very useful service that’s both in high-demand and is also growing in terms of its popularity.