How to establish a performance testing strategy in a cloud environment

【51CTO.com Quick Translation】 Living in the present, enterprises not only use cloud computing services to reduce infrastructure costs, but also bring higher efficiency and flexibility to the entire process. In such a situation, it is necessary to establish a correct strategy for application testing in the cloud. Performance testing is a key aspect in any cloud testing strategy, which can test the scalability, compatibility, availability and security of applications.

Before an application is launched, it needs to be fully tested for performance, including speed, stability, and scalability under different load conditions. If poor usability, system failures, functional differences, and other issues are not addressed, the product will not survive. Any lack of performance testing will lead to subsequent problems.

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Key characteristics of cloud computing
Cloud services are now used by many companies, and their advantages are obvious. One important advantage is low cost, including capital expenditure and operating expenditure. The effective reduction of costs depends on two factors; the number of activities and the provision of infrastructure. In addition, there is the low maintenance fee of cloud computing applications, which further reduces costs.

In addition, cloud services allow the performance of applications to be directly monitored, network services to be facilitated, and loose design architectures to be further improved. Cloud services help to further improve productivity by enabling multiple users to work on the same database at a given point in time, which helps save time and deliver products within strict deadlines.

Compared with non-cloud environments, cloud service resources are ready-made in the settings, these resources come from outside, and can be provided on demand. This makes cloud computing enterprises need to strengthen testing or rapid availability of infrastructure.

Performance Testing in Cloud Environments
Testing in a cloud environment is similar to testing in a non-cloud environment. It involves a series of tests that help the team analyze various aspects of the system, including various cloud application scenarios - public cloud, private cloud or hybrid cloud. Performance testing derives the test results of the software or application in different scenarios.

The difference is that planning and execution of performance testing is less applicable in a cloud environment setting. Most importantly, the response time in a cloud environment can be different from that in a non-cloud environment.

Get statistics about the load
At the beginning of the testing process, it is very important to get the required information from the cloud provider and from the load statistics of other customers sharing the cloud. This will provide you with the response times that you can expect, given that a range of applications will be hosted on the cloud. Therefore, it is recommended to evaluate the response times when running performance tests under high load environments.

These tests need to be run regularly to record the minimum, maximum, and average response times. This will help in tracking the response time of the application during actual testing.

Stress Testing
Similar to load testing, stress testing in public clouds is very necessary as extreme planning and execution must be done. Public clouds are shared by multiple users, so testing must be planned more effectively than private clouds. Stress testing is very rigorous for all applications and it is crucial to understand the application's response and find stress points and breaking points.

Monitoring Memory
Memory monitoring tools allow the testing team to monitor virtual memory for extensive testing. This is very important to understand the capacity and scalability of the virtual environment in which the application is tested.

Elasticity testing and scalability testing Elasticity testing is an important part of cloud environment testing. Through elasticity testing, we can understand whether the product performance reaches the SLA level and whether it can be further expanded. In the cloud model, the model is more or less pay-as-you-go. Elasticity testing helps to verify the services used and estimate the costs based on the usage. This method can pass through the breakpoints under high load and can increase and decrease the load. For such cases, boundary value analysis is convenient, which can help determine the thresholds.

Summarize
Cost-effectiveness, speed, agility, and efficiency are the key reasons why enterprises are widely leveraging the cloud. Performance testing is a complex task that requires effective customization for various applications/projects. Various factors need to be considered while building a strategy – project environment, business drivers, acceptance factors, technology stack, available skill sets, resources, and methodologies.

In the cloud environment, the test environment will be monitored and promoted, so as to conduct effective testing for the application. Public cloud testing has different meanings than private cloud testing. As long as the testing strategy is complete, the cloud environment can bring you the desired results.

By HirenTanna
Original link: https://dzone.com/articles/building-a-cloud-performance-testing-strategy
Translated by Liu Nina

[Translated by 51CTO. Please indicate the original translator and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]