Software Testing in the Cloud Environment
Software testing plays an important role in the software development life cycle as every customer expects zero defects & 100% performance. Innovative ways in testing practices which can bring down cost and save time are always in need. Cloud computing is one of the best ways for Software testing at the present scenario which gave a new thought in delivering services in IT sector. It has advantage of distributing & using resources across the globe at the time of your convenience.
Nowadays cloud providers are offering cloud based testing services on demand to test user’s application quickly and efficiently. It is similar to other cloud based services on a pay per service model. In-house Software testing is costly and consumes huge time. In this booming face of cloud computing, testing the application in cloud eliminates the cost required for creating In house testing environment.
Generally cloud testing services is of two types – On Premise and On Demand
Products are available in three deliver models - SaaS, PaaS, IaaS. Non functional testing services such as performance, security etc. is having few limitations.
Why testing can be taken to cloud?
- Organizations spend more in creating new test labs for each project; Cloud based testing services support them by providing a cloud based test environment instead of real-time situations and they also help in testing different applications
- The seasonal nature of testing makes it adopt cloud platform for catalyzing the usual manual testing
- Vast infrastructure needs & restricted re-usability of test infrastructure induces cloud adoption
- Cloud has enormous scope and benefits such as low-cost, elimination of capital expenditures, pay per use concepts etc.
- Some of the non-cost related benefits includes enhanced collaboration, increased level of efficiency, freedom of holding assets and minimized time to market
Reasons to think before going for cloud
As cloud does wonders in software testing, it also has few points to think before getting into it - security, availability, data integrity and privacy.
The complications of changes in future are high. Organizations need to support versatile user interfaces for the demanding and consumer oriented environment. Choosing right technology & methods to improve services is important.
Therefore, proper evaluation of projects & its requirements need to be done based on parameters like internal environment adoption, industry / need variations, volume/size of projects, ROI etc. Cloud testing is suitable for cases like need for multiple resources to work on projects, people having different ability to work on a single project, a need for the different test environment etc. is high.
Hence, cloud can give best results, if you have a well-balanced & risk based approach and ensuring all confidential data resides in a protected space.
