Cloud computing has taken hold of the business world, nearly reaching its saturation point according to multiple industry reports. The business cloud and its cloud testing capabilities are growing at an extremely fast pace due to scalability, adaptability, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency across nearly every industry.

Like anything else when it comes to innovations in technology, though, cloud testing comes with its share of drawbacks.

In this article, v2solutions evaluates cloud testing and considers the benefits, scope, testing environments, and challenges typical of the cloud testing process.

The article discusses the following:

A.Benefits of Cloud Testing

1. Dynamic testing with an easily replicated customer environment.
2. Reduced testing and tool license costs.
3. Customization per use so organizations can effectively emulate the end-user experience.
4. Scalability so your testing environment grows with your company.

B. Cloud Testing Challenges that make it an Ineffective App Evaluation Tool

1. Log and file access is limited and requires testers to invest extensive time and energy determining whether an application issue exists.
2. The general performance of apps in the cloud—especially the public cloud—does not provide a consistent testing environment.
3. Security and user privacy in cloud infrastructure is not yet reliable.
4. Custom configurations are sometimes not available, so testers won’t have a setup that effectively matches that of the client.
5. Data loss is a top concern, requiring extensive backup and recovery planning which can interfere with cost savings and efficiency.

Conclusion

Though cloud testing has its benefits, it is clearly not enough. Organizations that want to get a better idea of how their applications will perform should consider evaluating their critical apps with a network emulation tool before investing in major infrastructure or software upgrades and related costs. A network emulator tool can provide a consistent, secure, customizable testing environment with enhanced user protection and security against data loss, reliable test environment replication for evaluating app performance, and complete file access throughout the testing process.

If you’re looking for a reliable, secure way to test your business’ critical apps and functionality by simulating various network conditions, check out the Maxwell family of network emulators or download our whitepaper to understand how apps perform on the network, even under adverse network conditions.