WHITEPAPER

LeveragingCloudCapabilities forProductTesting

Abstract
Inthiswhitepaper,Impetusfocusesonhowthepower oftheCloudcanbeharnessedtoaddressthesoftware producttestingchallengesfacedbyorganizations. ThepaperdiscussesCloudComputingcapabilitiesand whyorganizationsneedtoconsidertheCloudfor testing. Italsotalksindetailabouthowatestingteamcan actuallyutilizethestrengthsandbenefitsthatthe Cloudoffersandthecharacteristicsanapplication musthave,toqualifyforCloudbasedtesting.

ImpetusTechnologies,Inc. www.impetus.com September2011

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Tableo ofConte ents

Introduction..... ...................... ............................................................... .......2 hyCloudforT Testing?......... ............................................................... .......3 Wh IsC Cloudusefulf formeduring gtesting?................................................ .......4 Cha allengesinad doptionofClo oudforTestin ....................................... ng .......6 Operationalcha allengesinClo oudadoption......................................... .......7 epbystepapp proachtoleveragecloudc capabilities........................ .......8 Ste Sum mmary.......... ...................... ............................................................... .....10

In ntroduct tion
CloudComputingisamodelthatena ablesconvenient,ondema andaccessto oa sharedpoo olofconfigura ablecomputingresources, ,suchasnetw works,server rs, storage,ap pplicationsandservices.Th heseresource escanberapidlyprovision ned andrelease edwithminim malmanagem menteffortor rserviceproviderinteraction. Oflate,the erehasbeena alotofhypesurroundingCloudCompu utingandinte ensive deliberationonhowitscapabilitiescanbeexploit ted. Everyorgan nization,from mstartups,SMEstothela argeones,isc consideringth he utilizationo oftheCloudi intheirprodu uctstrategies.TheCloudis sbeingadopt ted andharnes ssedforvariousfunctionalitiesinaprod ductdevelopm mentlifecycl le, themisalsosoftwaretest keyamong ting. CXOs,testd directorsand dmanagersha aveonebigp prioritytoday reducingth he timetoplan,install,con nfigureandva alidatecomplextestenviro onments,while improvingt thequalityof ftesting.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Why yCloudf forTesting?

Lookingatthemultifaceteddemand dsofthecurre entmarket,it tscomplexity yand thedynami icnatureoftheapplications,itisobvio ousthatprodu ucttestingha as becomeac challengingen ndeavor.Pro oductTestingteamsneedt tovalidatehighly scalablereq quirementso ofdistributedandcomponentbasedap pplications.He ere aresomeo ofthemainre easonswhyon neshouldcon nsidercloudf fortesting. Pro oducttestingdemandsinte ensivecapitalinvestments sinhardware e.For org ganizationsth hateitherdon nthaveresou urcesordono otwanttoha avea dire ectanddedic catedinvestm mentintesting ginfrastructu ure,theCloud dis the eperfectchoi iceasitfulfillsalltestenvironmentrequirementsan nd dem mands. IfC Cloudcapabili itiesareexplo oitedeffectiv vely,theycanhelpinachie eving eno oughtestcov veragewhileb bringingdowninvestment tand con nfigurationco ostsforanyorganization.T Theusageofrightenviron nment for rtestingwilla alsohelpinco ontrollingthe eproductcost tsbyenabling g def fectdetection nearlierinthelifecycle. Acc cordingtoar recentindustr ryresearch,3 30percentofthebugsin pro oductionared duetotheinc correctteste environmentc configuration ns. The estudyalsoin ndicatesthattheeffortsin nvolvedinfixingthesedef fect leakagesarehug ge. erestingly,testhardwarei isnotutilized dtoitsoptimu umcapacitya after Inte the esoftwareisl launchedinto othemarketthatresultsin nwastageof res sourcesofany yorganization n.WiththeC Cloudbasedre entalandpay yas you ugomodel,t thetestingteamisprovide edwithatest tlabforthe req quiredtimefra ameandasso oonasthete estingisover,theresource esare dec commissioned.Thisreallyhelpsorganiz zationstosav veoncapital exp penditure. ditionally,org ganizationsca anshortenth heprovisionin ngtimeasclo oud Add ena ablesprovisio oningoftests serversonan nondemandbasis.Theref fore, the eprocuremen nttimetakenfortestresourcesisreduc ced,whichcu uts dow wnotheradm ministrativeco ostsaswell.I Itisalsoimpo ortanttocons sider the ecostsinvolve edinprocurin ngthelicense esofthetools.Thecosto of too olstypicallyin ncreaseswiththenumberofusers.The erefore,most com mpaniesdonottestapplic cationsforthe eexpectednumberofuse ers, the erebyresultin ngintheirpoo orperforman nceoftheapp plicationon pro oduction.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Clo oudComputin ngencourageselasticityintheapplicati ionplatform.This imp pliesthattheactualresourcesusedbytheapplicatio onmaygrow wor shr rinkbasedontheloadont theapplicatio on.TheCloud dmakesitpos ssible tot testduringth heupscalinganddownsc calingofappli icationswitho out any yintervention nfromthead dministrator. The eCloudalsog givesorganiza ationsanopp portunitytocollaborate wit thoutbounda aries.Geograp phicallydistributedtesting gteamscan add ditionallysharethesamee environmentanduseitfortesting init tiatives,24x7.Theseenvironmentscanalsobeshare edwiththe dev velopmentte eamfordebug ggingpurpose es.WiththeC Cloud,test eng gineerscannowsay,Wehavetestedt thissoftwareinareal env vironmentintheCloud.He ere'sthedefe ectandhere'salinktothe e env vironmentwh hichwasused dfortesting. Thedevelop percanaccessthat URL,toseewhe erethedefect tsare,andfix xthesame.Th heCloudalso o rem movesthebackandforthp pressurethat tisusuallyob bservedina traditionaltestin ngenvironme ent.

IsC Clouduse efulformeduringtestin ng?

onthatmostcompaniesarefacedwith his,IsCloudusefulforme e Thequestio duringtesting? Ithasbeennoticedthat ttheexternaleventssuchastheSuperBowl,Cyber Monday,Ta axDay,Valen ntinesDay,adropinthein nterestrateo orinfact,any y vaguenews saboutacele ebrity,cansu uddenlydriveunforeseent traffictoanyweb application. However,if fthesitehost tingsuchapp plicationsbecomesslow,o orworse,cras shes underthisl load,itissafe etoassumethatitwasno ottestedwithenoughuser rsand theCloudc cancomeinh handyfortest tingneeds.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Softwareproductswithcomplexcom mputationalw workloadssuc chastightly coupled,pa arallelproces sses,ortheap pplicationsth hatareveryse ensitiveto networkpe erformanceca analsolevera agetheCloud dduringtestin ng. TaketheinstanceofWa allStreetfirms.Theserunt thousandsof finstancesof complexMonteCarlosimulationsatnighttodete erminehowto obereadywhen themarket topens.Thisi impliesthatf forsomeappl licationsthee economicand d agilitybene efitsmaybev verystrongan ndshouldbemigratedqui icklytotheCl loud. Incaseofthetightlyinte egratedappli icationswithfairlystableu usagepattern ns,it maynotma akesensetomovetotheCloud. TheCloudc canalsoplayapivotalrole einscenarioswhereanorg ganizationwi ishes toleverage eitshardware einfrastructureandcomputingresourc cestoperform m testinglikeperformance e,load,stress sandcompatibilityforregularapplicati ions. TheCloudi isusefuliforg ganizationsarelookingtotestHighPer rformance Computing g(HPC)applicationsorHPC Cstyleworklo oads.Thesecompanieswo ould usuallybeo operatinginv verticalssuch hpharmaceut ticals,oilexploration,industrial andautomotivedesign,andmediaandentertainm ment. Nomatterwhatthenee ed,organizationsmustdet terminethee exactreasonswhy theyhavet tomovetoth heCloudandw whentheyha avetomaket thismove.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Challenge esinado optiono ofCloudforTest ting

Thereares severalchallengesthatorg ganizationsca anencounterwhileembra acing theCloudf forsoftwaret testing.These einclude: Sha aringofresou urcesandtes stenvironments:Thefirstmajorpainp point iss sharingofresourcesandte estenvironments.Thesha aringofthe infr rastructurebecomesapro oblemwhent thesamestac ckofresource esis bei ingaccessedbydifferentt teamsthatof ftenresultsin nresource dea adlocks. The edeploymen ntofbuildson nvariousnod des:Thisisan nother pro oblematicare ea.Ifthebuild disdeployedmanuallyand donalarge num mberofnode es,itwillinvo olveadditiona aleffortininstallingthebu uild oneveryothern nodebythet testingteam.Eventhedep ploymentof tes stingtoolscan ncreateprob blems. Exe ecutionoftes stsuitesond differentclust ters:Asignificantchalleng geis the eexecutionof ftestsuiteso ondifferentclustersandm monitoringthi is act tivity.Asthes suiteisexecutedonvariou usnodes,kee epinganeyeo on the eexecutionst tatusandarri ivingatalegibleconsolida atedresultset t fromaclustero ofmachinesbecomesadiff ficulttask.Th hemanageme entof stdatawithcl lustersgettingupscaleda anddownsca aledisanothe er tes pro oblem.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Operati ionalcha allenges sinCloudadopt tion

Apartfromthechallengesdiscussedintheprevioussection,th hereareother thatarefaced dbytheorgan nizationsdue etocloud operationalchallengest platforms. Interop perability:Eachpublicclou udproviderh hasitsownar rchitecture, operati ingmodelandpricingmec chanismandofferverylitt tle interop perability.Thisposesabigchallengefor rcompaniesw whentheyne eed toswitchvendors.V Vendorlockin n,regulatorycompliance,privacy,and security y,areamong gafewcustom merconcerns srelatedtoth hepublicClou ud. Freque entupdates:I Itisalsoseen nthatCloudv vendorsupdat tetheirAPIsa and release etheirbuildsveryfrequently.Thisinturnplacesade emandonthe e produc ctteamstoke eepacheckonthesechanges,andgett theirproduct ts validate edfortheClo oudvendorsbuilds,aswe ell. Monito oring:Theimproperuseof fCloudbased dtestenviron nmentscanre esult inhighe ercosts.Even nthoughsom mevendorsof fferpayasyo ougoCloud services,thisapproa achcanbeex xpensiveifthe eresourcesarenotcontro olled, monito oredandused defficiently. System mmaintenanc ce/updates:A Additionally,p performanceoftheCloudcan havean nimpact,ass sometimesth heservicesare edisruptedd dueto mainte enanceorupd datesbyCloudvendors.As spublicCloud dsaresharedby numero oususers,the eremaybeca aseswhereacompanymig ghthavetow wait fortherequiredban ndwidth. Securit ty:Securityisalsoanother rcriticalfacto orthatneedstobeaddressed. Recently,theSonys sitewashacke edandtheda ataofabout1 100millionus ser ntswascompromised.This swastheseco ondbiggestd datathefttoo occur accoun intheU USandwasca arriedoutusi ingAmazon's sEC2Cloud.T Therefore, security y,relatedtod dataintegrity y,isamajorc concern.

However,d despitethesebottlenecks,therearesev veralbenefits sofharnessin ngthe powerofth heCloudanditsinfrastruc cturetoensur rethecorrect tnessofproduct architectur re,itsimplementationand dconfiguration.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Stepbyste e epappro oachtoleverage ecloudc capabilit ties

ImpetusTe echnologieshasdesigneda acustomtest tapproachthatcanhelp organizatio onstoadoptt theCloudfortheirproduct ttestingneed ds.Thetest approachw wasderivedfr romImpetus testenginee eringmaturity ymodel(TEM MM), whichdefin nesthekeyte estingactivitie esthatarene ecessarytorightlytestany y softwarepr roduct.Them modelhelpsresolvetheam mbiguitiestha atariseduring g SoftwareProductTestin ng.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

TheImpetu usdefinedmo odelaimstop provideadefinitivedirecti iontoachievi ing betterprod ductquality,t throughafoc cusonbusinessgoals,risks s,timeandco osts. Themodelservesasabenchmarkforanytypeoftesting,inclu udingfunction nal andnonfun nctionaltestin nganditsdef finedsetofac ctivitiescans showtheway yto anorganiza ationstesting gteams. Accordingt toImpetus,companiescan nadoptitsste epbystepap pproachto leverageCloudcapabilit tiesasshowca asedinthefig gurebelow.

LeveragingC Cloudcapabilit tiesforproduc cttesting

Summ mary
Clearly,Clo oudiscurrent tlygainingmo omentumand dhasthecapa abilitytoredu uce theproductlifecycleforanyorganizationandcom meupwithbetterquality, tofferingswithlesserinve estment.With hitsownsetofchallenges s, zerodefect Cloudbring gsalotmorebenefitsthat thelporganiz zationstoput tacaponthe eir budgets.Im mpetusappro oachtowards sCloudutiliza ationduringte estingcanbe e adoptedby yanyproduct tcompanytha atprovidesth hemadefinit tivedirection towardseff ficientutilizat tionofthesame.

AboutImpet tus ImpetusTech hnologiesoffersProductEng gineeringandT TechnologyR& &Dservicesforsoftwareprod ductdevelopment. Withongoing ginvestmentsinresearchan ndapplicationo ofemergingte echnologyarea as,innovativeb businessmode els,and anagileappr roach,wepartnerwithourclientbasecom mprisinglarges scaleISVsandt technologyinn novatorstodeliver cuttingedge esoftwareprod ducts.Ourexpertisespansth hedomainsofBigData,SaaS,CloudCompu uting,Mobility Solutions,Te estEngineering g,Performance eEngineering,andSocialMediaamongoth hers. ImpetusTechnologies,Inc. vard,Suite450 0,SanJose,CA95129,USA 5300StevensCreekBoulev @impetus.com Tel:408.213.3310|Email:inquiry@ velopmentCentersINDIA:NewDelhiBangaloreIn ndoreHydera abad RegionalDev Toknowmo orevisit:http:/ //www.impetus.com

Di isclaimers
Theinformationcon ntainedinthisdocumentistheprop prietaryandexclus sivepropertyofIm mpetusTechnologi iesInc.exceptaso otherwiseindicate ed.Nopartof isdocument,inwh holeorinpart,ma aybereproduced, ,stored,transmitted,orusedforde esignpurposeswithoutthepriorwri ittenpermissiono ofImpetus thi 10 0 TechnologiesInc.