48 | The Last Word
4 V C T D S J C F U P U I F N P T U
the last word...
7 J U " - T P V S D F P G J O G P S N B U J P O
Testing with your head in the clouds
Cloud computing is the latest buzz phrase in the industry being
pushed by many including computing HP, IBM and Sun. Is it simply
marketing hot air to drive sales, or something with a little more
substance? Itrinegy’s Frank Puranik looks for the truth in the clouds.
T
he cloud is the Internet and some companies like
salesforce.com network conditions in the corporate
cloud computing refers to are very successful. In general though, network will now just be normal.
accessing applications over the appeal has been more limited in Also, there is a user expectation of
the internet in a ‘pay as you enterprise companies, while smaller richer, more interactive clients, eg
use’ model with web browsers or SMBs have shown a stronger adoption. Web 2.0, which don’t just send data
thin clients. It’s not new, it’s just ASP Perhaps it’s a matter of trusting other when you press ‘submit’. These may be
(Application Service Provision), which people with your data; enterprises communicating with the server all the
was itself reinvented as SaaS (Software are used to protecting their data time and so it’s clear that assumptions
as a Service). Third time lucky? themselves after all. about the ‘network lightness’ of
Cloud computing definitely includes On the face of it, many of us have browser-based clients (without
SaaS products (salesforce.com, accepted cloud computing, with an obvious ‘fat’ Java or ActiveX
Google apps etc) but also takes in IaaS Facebook, Twitter etc being very functionality) no longer holds and we
(Infrastructure as a Service – delivery popular and many using Webmail. cannot ignore the ‘network effect’.
/ F X T
7 J F X T
4 U S B U F H Z
. B O B H F N F O U
of computer infrastructure, possibly These are connected applications, so You also shouldn’t restrict testing in
virtualised, as a service) and PaaS that’s natural, but I don’t know a single the network to just the performance
(Platform as a Service – develop, test, person who uses Google Docs (Google testing phase alone, as the network
$ B T F T U V E J F T B O E 0 Q J O J P O 1 J F D F T
deploy, host and maintain applications apps) in preference to MS Office or impact, even on a single client
in the same integrated development OpenOffice. functional test may deem the
environment as a service). It will matter to you if your application unusable. The problem is
The first of these two (IaaS) seems organisation is going to embrace cloud often seen as: “That’s all very well but
9 % 3 ) A M I N T H E 5 + A N D ) W O U L D L I K E T O R E C E I V E A . 0 / 5 ) 4 6 # 4 $ 3 * 1 5 * 0 / S I X I S S U E S T O 7 J U " - - A G A Z I N E A T A C O S T O F a
like an implication of SaaS though you computing, which it will if you work how do we put the Internet into the
can also use IaaS to deliver on your for a software house that wants to test environment in any meaningful,
9 % 3 ) A M / V E R S E A S A N D ) W O U L D L I K E T O R E C E I V E A . 0 / 5 ) 4 6 # 4 $ 3 * 1 5 * 0 / S I X I S S U E S T O 7 J U " - - A G A Z I N E A T A C O S T O F a
own developed software in-house provide their applications as a service, repeatable manor?” The answer to this
) E N C L O S E A C H E Q U E F O R a 5 + a / V E R S E A S 0 A Y A B L E T O - E D I A , T D
or out-house. PaaS goes further by or a company that wants to move to lies in the use of network emulators
providing you with services to develop, a third-party infrastructure provider which will give you poor Internet
0 L E A S E I N V O I C E M Y C O M P A N Y F O R a 5 + a
test, deploy, host and maintain (IaaS) or take advantage of PaaS to experience repeatably and on-demand.
0 U R C H A S E / R D E R . U M B E R
applications in the same integrated reduce costs. It’s not just third time lucky, the first
3 I G N A T U R E
development environment – a sort of Everything you know about testing two goes never really died, they just
4 I T L E & U L L . A M E
total DIY SaaS toolkit. still applies in cloud computing, but morphed into the next. ASP was
No one completely agrees on these now your network environment during launched to an enormous fanfare and
* O B 4 I T L E # O M P A N Y
definitions, partly because they're the testing will be critical. Your cloud overpromised, but slowly, successful
! D D R E S S
evolving and partly because as they application will be delivered over the applications like
salesforce.com have
become ‘hot’ and drive the product Internet, not your LAN or WAN and emerged. The power and scalability of
0 O S T # O D E
sales bandwagon the terms become the end users could be anywhere, at the infrastructure is far better today,
4 E L & A X
stretched and diluted. What you can work, at home, abroad, on 3G, even on and our organisations don’t really
take away from all this though is that public WiFi. want to provision, install, maintain and % M A I L 1 V [ X Q Z I \ Q W V N W Z \ P M U W L M Z V J ] [ Q V M [ [
cloud computing implies Internet The quality of the Internet varies backup applications (provided they
network delivery. greatly, from reasonable to very poor and their data are kept secure) that are
3 I G N A T U R E $ A T E X X X W J U B M N B H O F U
So, does it matter to you and how bandwidth and good to very slow not of the competitive advantage type.
will it affect the way you test? It feels network response times. So your So as a tester it’s worthwhile having
like cloud computing should succeed applications will need to be able an awareness of cloud computing as
Frank Puranik
* G Z P V I B W F O P U B M S F B E Z T V C T D S J C F E U I F O W J T J U X X X W J U B M N B H O F U U P E P X O M P B E B T V C T D S J Q U J P O
Product director
and become ubiquitous, but it felt to function in adverse conditions, at some point it may impact your
Itrinegy
G P S N P S T J N Q M Z D P N Q M F U F U I F G P S N C F M P X B O E G B Y U P
P S Q P T U U P . F E J B
$ S B X M F Z
www.itrinegy.com
like that with ASP and SaaS. Certainly and what were considered extreme application testing.
# V T J O F T T $ F O U S F
4 U F Q I F O T P O 8 B Z
$ S B X M F Z
8 F T U 4 V T T F Y
3 ) 5 / * G Z P V B M S F B E Z T V C T D S J C F U I F O X I Z O P U
T.E.S.T | March 09
- E D I A W I L L K E E P Y O U U P T O D A T E W I T H O U R O W N P R O D U C T S A N D O F F E R S I N C L U D I N G 6 I T ! , - A G A Z I N E ) F Y O U D O N O T W I S H T O R E C E I V E T H I S I N F O R M A T I O N P L E A S E W R I T E T O T H E # I R C U L A T I O N - A N A G E R A T T H E A D D R E S S G I V E N
Q B T T U I J T G P S N U P B O
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ViTAL Sub FP 0908.indd 1 26/8/08 16:56:31
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