Software testing tools for testing cloud computing applications

With its dynamic scalability, flexibility, and virtualized resources delivered as a service, Cloud Computing is considered the dawn of a new era for application services and has received a fair amount of applause. With Google Docs, Flickr, Buzzword, and Zoho as examples of general-purpose applications using cloud computing technology, it’s only a matter of time before cloud computing is considered the most viable option for development and deployment. Of applications.

With IT giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon all vying for a position in the cloud computing space, you’d expect a plethora of cloud-based software applications to be available today. While this is certain to be the case in the near future, software testing currently appears to be the current preferred use of cloud environments.

A recent survey by Evans Data, an independent research firm that regularly surveys developers, found that of those using cloud facilities to run apps, 49.8% said they were doing so experimentally or for prototyping; 28.6% for non-critical business applications and 21.6% for critical business applications. They find cloud environments “good for testing because they can be quickly set up and taken down, sometimes at less cost than on-premise installations.”

The question to be answered is what software testing tools are available to assist developers and QA people in their application development and testing procedures. Software testing tools that are used to test conventional applications are of little use when applied to cloud testing, as tools are needed that allow software developers and the tester to analyze the network, desktop, and implications of changes within the cloud.

An increasing variety of cloud-based open source software testing tools are being released.

Cloud Tools, for example, is a set of tools for deploying, managing, and testing Java EE applications on Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2). With three main parts, including machine images that can be configured to run on the Tomcat and Maven & Grails plugin, this is an amazing tool to use for testing open source cloud software.

PushToTest TestMaker is a distributed test environment that can run tests on test machines or in a cloud computing environment. Enter specific commands to support automated cloud testing services.

Cloud Tools and PushToTest Test Maker represent product examples that will help shape the future of robust cloud-based software testing applications. Although the technology is in its infancy, a number of testing tools are emerging that can assist in cloud-based software testing.