SOASTA CloudTest Pro Leverages Cloud Resources To Build A Powerful Testing Platform

SOASTA this week released CloudTest Pro, an appliance that makes it possible for businesses to use hybrid public and private cloud resources to create highly scalable performance tests for their Web-based applications. The new device includes a graphical tool for creating test scripts and offers deep analytics to help businesses monitor performance tests under load and perform real-time resolution to find problems and other performance issues in applications.

Because CloudTest Pro can use cloud-based server systems to generate test loads, the SOASTA product can potentially deliver much higher concurrent user loads than is typically possible using internal server resources. SOASTA CEO Tom Lounibos claims that the company has the largest cloud-based test platform available.

While SOASTA's products had tended to require SOASTA's input  to run tests, the visual test creation tools in the new CloudTest Pro appliance add self-service functionality, letting site developers and managers easily run tests whenever needed. "This allows customers to build tests very quickly to provision virtual users from multiple locations, in some cases using thousands of servers, whether they be public or private cloud servers," says Lounibos.." The tool can be used to test traditional Web applications as well as AJAX, HTML5, Flash, mobile and streaming video.

According to Lounibos, the CloudTest Pro release has expanded support to private cloud APIs, as well, making it possible to directly integrate with virtualization systems and generate load internally at the same kinds of scale that it does externally.

SOASTA's hybrid cloud approach provides a competitive edge for the company and also allows it to reach a larger audience, according to Thomas Murphy, research director at Gartner. "People load test all the time, yet they still have performance problems in production. This is because they don't test to a high enough load, don't have good analytics to help them understand issues, don't have solid skills and have labs that don't represent reality. This product can't solve the skills issue, but it helps with all the others."Murphy said that many of the large load testing products from HP, Compuware and Micro Focus have also begun using public and private cloud resources to generate very high loads for application performance testing. "So, in essence, the original abilities of SOASTA CloudTest have begun to be caught up and thus the new offering," he says.

SOASTA's CloudTest Pro is targeted for enterprises with existing performance engineering teams. An annual subscription is $275,000. However, SOASTA has other products and services with different pricing models for smaller companies.

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