Cloud computing is a way of computing which has the power to offer scalable and even virtualized resources as a service over the Internet. Users need not know about or possess expertise in the underlying technology or infrastructure being used in the cloud. It encompasses Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and all recent technology innovations that rely on the Internet to satiate the computing needs of end users. The services over a cloud can be accessed via varied sources such as a web browser, while the software and data centers can lie on the servers.
This trend that Gartner reports as one of the top 10 strategic technologies might sound nebular but it’s not so hazy when we try to view its value additions with respect to IT - be it Software development, Testing or security. It is one of the best solutions to the most significant requirement in the IT industry: a means to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or procuring license of new software. It’s the era of multi-core Cloud Computing. There are hundreds and thousands of users running simultaneous against thousands of CPU’s. There are many more processes active at one time. This is the kind of infrastructure and scalability that a cloud network can establish for you. Although cost is a likely benefit for small companies, the biggest benefits are the flexibility and scalability, which not only reduce barriers, but also help these companies to grow quickly.
For testing organizations, there will be both new challenges as well as opportunities. Testing the multi-layered architecture — from the application to the cloud service provider — that's something which testers will have to become adept at. A more recent example is that - using a new cloud infrastructure such as the Google App Engine, organizations can now run their applications on Google's infrastructure. It is so much easier to deploy applications in a cloud. One does not have to bother about the data, instead you could concentrate on building the application and its functionality.
Its effect on testing is that the end-user experience is being impacted by the cloud provider and all other third party vendors involved. With the help of cloud computing, testers can access and afford enormous amounts of computing technology & power. And that's exactly what's needed in testing. It helps organizations test on hundreds of devices in a more comfortable and cost effective manner. For applications running on clouds, some things to test are: network performance, server performance, database performance, software performance on the application, the way its cached in the client. The challenge of software testing services across all the heterogeneous components and geographical boundaries to identify bugs/problems is a huge one. The platform could be any - a mobile device or a desktop or mainframe etc. – Quality has to be the supreme consideration!
According to the market research firm IDC, spending on IT cloud services is expected to increase threefold, to $42 billion by 2012. It’s certain that over the next five years every testing vendor will try to leverage the cloud. It seems that it would lead to a new generation of testing companies. There’s no denying the fact that cloud computing is going to be the next big thing that's going to revolutionize the way we consume service.
Author Resource:-
Minesh Upadhyaya, the Vice President of Global Testing Services. He has years of experience in Quality Assurance and providing software testing services. He has been involved in providing QA/Testing Solutions to many technically challenging projects.
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