The last few weeks I get a lot of requests to tell something about testing and cloud, like this interview for the Australian newspaper Sydney Morning Herald. And one of the most asked questions of course is what’s different in testing on the cloud and where do you need to pay extra attention at.
Cloud applications are still few compared to traditional applications, but they are the future. But what are cloud applications? When the question is asked “can you name a few cloud applications?” most people answer Salesforce.com, Facebook, Google Apps and even Microsoft Azure. Four hits (where one isn’t actually a cloud application), as the best known examples. Are there more? Yes and they are growing in numbers!
Note: Microsoft Azure is not a cloud application, but an infrastructure and platform.
But how do we test these cloud applications? What’s so special about them that they need a different type of testing than traditional applications? Cloud applications are applications that are created to leverage the opportunities the cloud gives them, but they also work with the disadvantages the cloud offers, like, for example, standardization.
The cloud is defined by its service model, deployment model and usage
Mostly cloud applications are based in the third cloud layer: SaaS. They are Software as a Service solutions that run completely on cloud infrastructure and platforms. And that is exactly the reason the testing of SaaS applications is different from traditional applications. When they are integrated in the current architecture they need to be tested on three levels: namely the infrastructure, the platform and the application itself, see figure. The usage of standard services of applications also means a change for system testing. Functional testing will be executed at a minimum, as the standard applications are already tested and approved by the supplier. But that doesn’t say anything about how it integrates into the client’s cloud.
But that’s my idea. How do you see this?
