Cloud computing is still an IT industry hot topic and has been gaining
space and importance; Meanwhile, cloud testing remains unknown even
for testing professionals around the world. It happens due to not only the
limited documentation and references, but also because many companies already
have a testing structure very well defined and does not have any application or
product in the cloud. As mentioned before, much has been said about cloud
computing, at this moment a question arises: How software
testing fits the cloud computing aspects?
Let’s check below.
Cloud computing
Firstly we need to understand what cloud computing is.
In a few words cloud computing is a service
to everything you want from IT industry. It means, store personal files,
photos, documents and so on, where all files may be accessed anywhere and
anytime with no software installation required.
Cloud computing is more than this simple example, which reflects your
life as a user of cloud computing. The same idea is suitable to IT industry in totality.
In a B2B (business-to-business) approach, it is possible use cloud service for an
infrastructure, platform, software etc... In other words, everything-as-a-service
(XaaS): infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and
software as a service (SaaS) and others.
A cloud computing advice would be: do not waste money in things that are not your
business. In IaaS for example, it is not necessary to take servers
inside the companies, they might rent as a service to fit infrastructure
according to the business. Think about an online company that sells shoes;
their business is to sell shoes, not to control technology for selling online, this
is a typically scenario that consumes in a great way a cloud computing
services.
The main idea of cloud computing is cost reduction and new opportunity.
Cloud testing
There is a subtle difference between testing in the cloud and testing
cloud services. Testing applications that are in the cloud is a challenge on finding
a test strategy to perform tests in this new computing platform; this approach will
not been attended in this article. The focus here is present a cloud testing as
a services that fits to software’s which are located in the cloud or not.
Cloud testing is a new way
to manage your tests where companies offer testing as a service:
-
For Outsourcing: when another
company implements your tests. The difference from traditional outsourcing
remains on the fact that you get complete access on your repository to execute,
get results or metrics and so on. Your pool of tests will be available to been
managed anytime and anywhere.
-
For consuming infrastructure: when you manage
your tests, to implement tests and to execute them. In this case, your
repository is also available to been managed anytime and anywhere without
demanding internal infrastructure. In additional you get access to several
resources such as browsers (versions/platform), mobile (models/versions). This might
been used for both automation and manual tests.
Benefits of cloud testing
The focus is cost reduction by consuming resources on demand. It means only pay for what really
use. Some cloud testing providers offer cloud testing by hours per month
where you get access to all platforms, devices and whatever the provider offer according
to the contracted hours beyond offer follow-up of test creation and execution
in a real time.
Another point is the security, in this case your company chooses for a dedicated
storage in providers and off course, pay for it. This is seasonable for under
development applications that are not in market yet or in case of some business
strategy.
The great advantage on consuming cloud
testing service, beyond price, is ease of access and virtualization
environments without taking dedicated servers in house, making it simple, for
developers and testers.
Conclusion
Your
application does not need to be in the cloud to been tested in the cloud. This is a
new way to test software in different approaches, such as, automation, manual,
unit, black box, grey box. To achieve a
quality of software it does not matter where your software is going to be
tested; the most important is apply best practices in software testing area.
Cloud testing just makes life easier for tester’s professionals since it offers
a several platforms and environment to test your application for a low
cost. The strategy to optimize cloud-testing
services remains in the hands of the best professionals.
References
www.informationweek.com/ blog/229206200
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