Put it into practice; Test using a cloud!

This week we finished a pilot project using a cloud environment as a test environment, and using test tools from the cloud. For this project our goal was to design and implement a Development and Test Cloud, to see how it could help our testing, using a real testing project from one of our clients as a pilot.

We created a test environment in the cloud. This included the set-up of the required testing tools from within the cloud, the required services (instances) and storage. In the environment, test management tools and test execution tools were also available.

We now had a System under Test (SuT) where we could execute manual and automated test scripts, which were exchanged with the test management tool. All this in the Cloud.

Experience

Well, what did we find out? The cloud for development and test environments has its strengths, but there are also some challenges to overcome.

The strengths were:

• The set-up of the environment architecture is very fast.
• The performance of the current cloud environment is sufficient for a normal-sized project. Performance is scalable - using more or less cloud resources (no figures available yet).
• Using integrated IBM Rational tooling, it was possible to do central management over the cloud environment (or more if applicable).
• The use of standardized test tools (SaaS) helps to cut time on set-up.
• There are system resources available in the cloud for applications and storage, freeing up system resources.
• Data location for storage, servers or applications is, in terms of compliance, traceable in the control panel of the cloud. It’s transparent where services are running and data is stored. Later this summer there will also be a possibility to use separate data (using VPN), for example on your own network.

There are, however, some challenges to overcome:

• A test environment coordinator needs to have technical skills, because they are needed to understand how to install and manage some of the cloud services (on Linux).
• There is always a confidentiality risk when important business information is set in a hybrid or public cloud. As it should be, most of the security is left to the user, and tools are limited.
• Back-up facilities are not ‘out-of-the-box’ yet.
• Networking is limited; no VPN, firewall or subnets are available. These are needed to control access to the cloud servers.

Our conclusion

A testing cloud with test environments in a cloud computing environment makes it possible to use cloud computing for testing and acceptance environments, and so potentially simplifies the process and strips out some testing costs.

With cloud computing and virtualization, it’s possible to create multiple (testing) environments in the cloud. These environments can therefore be used as testing and acceptance environments, so reducing the need for other expensive environments that have to be set up internally and are only used when tests are executed. It offers a wide number of environments to perform a comprehensive range of testing activities.

The cloud set-up is not directly cheaper than the set-up of traditional environments; there are still costs. But the real opportunity to cut costs of test environments lies in its management and control. When a (sub) area is not needed, it can be turned 'off', and then turned ‘on’ again when necessary - the environments is immediately up and running within a few minutes! A very real advantage for most of our clients!