Testing Cloud Applications: Load Testing on Different Clouds

 

Cloud Application Testing

 

Moving your critical applications onto the cloud is an increasingly popular way of reducing IT expenses while more efficiently deploying your critical applications. A common challenge that many businesses face when they move a critical application onto the cloud is how to correctly gauge the application’s performance when it goes live.

This is where load testing is really important. Effective load testing allows you to get a clear sense of how the application will perform when it is activated and used. Unfortunately, traditional load testing methods are expensive and time-consuming. For many businesses, traditional methods are economically unfeasible.


How does this apply to types of clouds used by your business? There are three different types of clouds that are commonly used by businesses: private, public and hybrid. While all three share certain commonalities, they also have their own unique properties that have implications for how you want to approach your testing. This article is going to focus in on the three types of clouds and their testing implications.

Clouds allow for IT to be provided as a service, on demand. This is done by virtualizing applications so that they can be shared efficiently among users who need them. This makes using IT more efficient than in the past where you had to put in all the upfront costs related to setting up servers and desktops regardless of how much you actually consumed.

Public Clouds are available to the public via a service provider (Google and Amazon being two examples). These service providers own the infrastructure but offer services on a pay-per-use basis. Some of the benefits of public clouds are efficiency, low cost, quick access to upgrades, scalability and reliability. The main downsides are questions of control and security.

Private clouds have the most in common with traditional networks. Private clouds are load tested within an institution’s existing network. This gives institutions more flexibility, security and certainty with their in-house applications. The downside is that they still require investments in the underlying infrastructure, though in the future it will be easier to share resources with other institutions and better deal with that inefficiency.

Hybrid clouds combine elements of both. A well-set up hybrid cloud system can bring in the best of private and public clouds. As an added bonus, if one system fails, then the other can compensate.

Our program, AppLoader, allows you to load test your critical applications on any of these types of clouds. It is the most efficient way to properly gauge how your application will perform in the cloud. This will allow you to get an accurate sense of the end-user experience at different levels of usage.

AppLoader’s affordable price, quick execution and accurate simulations ensure that you will get useful data that you can use to add certainty to the launch of your application.

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