White Paper

Testing the Cloud

Last Updated: 10th March, 2009
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Introduction
These can be both immediate and vast ranging, from
set of concerns; security, privacy, availability, performance
Cloud solution to ensure the delivery of a safe, integrated
solution which meet s the needs of the business it is to
and concerns of a Cloud Computing solution and how
suitable t esting can aid in realizing the full potential of your
Cloud c omputing is t he single largest trend in comput ing
infrastructure today, although commonly misunderstood or
incorrectly referred to as Grid Computing, Utility Comput ing
make use of these types of backbone, Cloud Computing is a
much more generalized term in which little or no centralized
work t ogether achieving high utilizat ion levels to perform a
common task, present ing GUI interfaces to users through
Computing can be considered to be the next natural st ep
SaaS as a type of Cloud
Computing
control of the application is retained allowing for reduction
in licensing, implementation and ongoing maintenance
used to describe networks and infrastructure which are not
PaaS as a type of cloud
computing
Another common example of Cloud Comput ing is Platform
users platform, thus allowing centralized control of the
What does Cloud Computing
mean to business?
IIts easy to see why Cloud Computing solutions appeal
allow utilizat ion to be spread evenly amongst available
with currently exist ing Cloud deployments means t he
need to own hardware to support the Cloud solution
utilization of ot herwise lesser used servers producing
implementat ions and location dependence means
business can reduce the environmental impacts of its
Cloud means that these environments can be scalable
to production size and deployed within far reduced
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IT components means that maintenance can be carried
is then mirrored in all end user instances of that Cloud
present s risks which must be mitigated effectively if Cloud
to an ext ernal third party how does t he business
maintain control of their dat a, impact down time, drive
impact their solution?
sensitive information which traverses the cloud is safe
and secure?
the privacy of their users and information when using
the cloud?
Cloud Computing what assurances do businesses
have their valuable data remains intact?
for any time, what is the business impact ?
that their third party solut ion is suitable for it s intended
use?
Quashing Concerns
Non-Functional Testing
In the earliest stages of assessing the feasibility of a Cloud
Computing solut ion it is key for the business and Cloud
and more often to third parties to deliver these solutions,
workshops to understand what is being asked for in
the development lifecycle by removing potential soft ware
Cloud Computing solut ions claim to be scalable on
huge amounts of load on the solution the Cloud c an be
Using a distributed Cloud Computing solution should
allows an accurate image of the solutions ability over the
the system is
constructed so as to be capable of acting as delivery
Penetration Testing c an prove that the mechanisms, which
have been developed to maintain security, will remain
intact during potential att empts to compromise t he Cloud
Functional Testing
How do business validate that the system will behave
deployment it is critical t o prove t hat the system funct ions
as it has been designed, that the system components
work together, inputs and outputs are as expected and the
Before any deployment, how do the business verify that
the integrated solution will behave as intended to facilitat e
business continuity? Integration t esting allows the business
to verify that t he Cloud solution will work wit hin the
current infrastructure and environments, proving t hat the
implementat ion of a Cloud solution does not detrimentally
validat ed to prove that the end result of the Cloud solution
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The location independence element of Cloud Computing
solutions makes t hese types of applications the most
infrastructure which can be utilized offsite and thin client or
present as an instant option for t esting Cloud Comput ing
Service Enablement via Tools
Major technology vendors including such household
names as HP, Intel and Yahoo are presently collaborating
to create huge cloud test beds consisting of many
thousands of processors working together as centres of
users t o t est their cloud deployments at internet scale and
also understand how t heir systems and software actually
Providers globally today, indicat ors are clearly pointing at
cloud computing t o be a major focus point for the industry
Current test tool offerings by the likes of HP and IBM are
ideal for non functional and automated testing in a cloud
HPs Quick Test Pro or IBMs Rational Robot can be used to
full effect wit hin a cloud environment to perform automated
Well known t ools such as HPs Load Runner or IBMs
Rational Performance Test er are familiar t o testers the world
designed to test cloud applications are appearing on the
Computing in todays technology sector it is critical that
any tester who is expected to test cloud solut ions has a
good understanding of what makes a Cloud Computing
applicat ion and distributed archit ecture, as well as a good
understanding of the tools available and their strengths and
Summary
Whilst Cloud Computing applicat ions for business use are
still in their infancy, analyst s predict this type of development
IT managers t he world over and cannot be ignored by
businesses st riving t o overcome the constraints of their
current IT hardware whilst struggling to just ify the cost of