Future of Cloud Testing: Testing as a Service (TaaS)

Author : knowledge sharing team

The three major types of cloud computing are Software as a service (Saas), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a service (PaaS); and now Testing as a Service (TaaS) is a new evolved fourth category of cloud testing. TaaS, in simple terms, is delivering testing with tools and people included as part of the service. Companies label their testing services as TaaS; TaaS is elastic by its definition; it is targeted to accomodate changes that frequently occur during consumption of services. If a client needs  testing services for a particular period, they pay for only what they consume. The TaaS provider must have a flexible execution model to contain changes according to the client's needs as they themselves are driven by  ever-changing customer requirements.

[caption id="attachment_1083" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Future of Cloud Testing: Testing as a Service (TaaS)[/caption]

Cloud testing for purposes of a test services vendor  is a combination of  IaaS and TaaS. IaaS provides the testing environments in which TaaS can be practical. IaaS and TaaS are provided as cloud testing, but eventually, the cost depends on the overall utilization. The main goal is to provide each service according to the client's needs and flexibly scale up or down.

Cloud testing services  has no meaning without the following three facets:

• The system or application which is under test is accessible online. In addition to this, it includes testing at different levels; for e.g., performance testing. Also, this might either be a SaaS (hosted) or non-SaaS (behind the firewall implementation) software


• Testing environment or infrastructure/platforms are hosted across different deployment models of the cloud


• Cloud environment should be tested and considered for their availability, security, performance in order to ensure efficient service delivery

Cloud testing is a step-by-step process. First step is to develop the user scenarios; once the user scenarios are ready, service providers will leverage the cloud servers to generate web traffic from around the world. When test is completed, the results and analytics are handed over to the client team for complete analysis of how their application will perform during peak times. However, cloud can be leveraged by the service provider not just for performance testing but for varied other tests including functional, security, localization etc.

Steps :
Develop user scenario -> Design Test Cases -> Select Cloud Service Provider -> Setup Infrastructure -> Leverage Cloud Servers -> Start Testing -> Monitor Testing Goals -> Deliver Results.

TaaS is already gaining popularity in providing testing services to the client.  It is an effective model not just due to the pay-per-use feature, but also due to the faster delivery that now becomes possible cutting down on infrastructure setup time, resolving queries/reproducing issues etc. all of which are now possible on machines accessible to both the client and the vendor.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/future-of-cloud-testing-testing-as-a-service-taas-5658636.html

About the Author

Knowledge Sharing Team at QA InfoTech is responsible for research on new tools & technologies for effective Software quality testing services across all industry verticals. QA InfoTech (an ISO 9001:2008 & CMMI III certified) is one of the leading Software Quality  Assurance and Testing Companies with five testing 'Centers of Excellence' in the United States and India.  It offers end to end Cloud testing services.

For more visit us at : http://www.qainfotech.com/cloud_performance.html