Cloud-based testing uses cloud-based tools to emulate real-world user traffic and

environments. Cloud-based testing can be applied for testing cloud, web, and
installed applications. Providers of cloud testing services and tools offer test
environments that can be configured according to application’s requirements. In
addition, cloud testing has given rise to Testing as a Service (TaaS), which allows
organizations to outsource their testing efforts. TaaS can be used for overall
software testing as well as for conducting specialized types of testing such as
performance, security, or functional testing. Before you choose any type of cloud-
based testing, we suggest that you consider the benefits and challenges of cloud-
based testing.

Benefits of cloud-based testing

In contrast to traditional software testing, cloud-based testing has several unique

advantages:

 Scalability — Cloud computing allows testers to increase or decrease

computing resources according to their needs. This is very useful in cases
when the client frequently changes their business requirements.
 Cost-cutting — In cloud computing, you pay only for those resources that
you use. This means that there’s no need to invest in expensive equipment
and spend money maintaining and upgrading it. You can just use the testing
environment that you need right now and pay only for that environment. You
can have all the software and hardware you might need at your disposal while
only paying for it when you actually use it.
 Timesaving — With cloud-based testing, an application can be
simultaneously run on different hardware so testers can spend more time
fixing defects.
 Easily customizable — By using cloud-based tools and services, testers can
easily emulate an end-user-centric environment with minimum cost and time.
The test team can perform various types of testing in any combination of
device environments.
 Properly configured test environment — It usually takes much time to
properly set up a test environment on multiple devices. Moreover, any errors
made during environment configuration can be repeated across all devices.
Fortunately, you can avoid this by using cloud-based tools that have been
preconfigured by their provider, saving your time and money.
 Ensure comprehensive testing — In order to conduct comprehensive
testing, the test team needs to run an application on all possible devices that
support different platforms, operating systems, and browsers. Cloud-based
testing provides you with all these devices and configurations, eliminating the
need to purchase all of them.
 Faster testing — Cloud-based testing tools ensure automated testing, which
greatly reduces the time to market for software. This is achieved thanks to the
ease of building testing infrastructure, increased collaboration within the test
team thanks to real-time reports, and efficient testing.
  Constant availability — Software testing in the cloud is available to testers at
any time. Testing can be performed anytime and anywhere, so testers can
speed up software deployment and testing.
 Better team collaboration — Cloud-based testing allows software
companies to better implement DevOps, which requires collaboration between
developers and testers. In the cloud, testers can spin up test environments
with different configurations and data and automate testing processes using
such tools as Docker and Heroku.

Challenges of testing in the cloud

Although cloud-based testing has many benefits for assuring application quality, this
way of testing also has its challenges that should be considered beforehand. Let’s
look closer at operational challenges that testers should be ready to overcome
before they can reap the advantages of testing in the cloud:

 Lack of standards — There are still no universal solutions for how testers
can integrate internal resources of their companies’ data centers with public
cloud resources. Since public cloud providers develop their own architectures
and operating models, these cloud services have little interoperability. Thus,
testers may face challenges if they want to switch cloud vendors because
cloud vendors don’t offer the same services.
 Security and privacy concerns — Security in the cloud still raises many
concerns as encryption techniques are far from perfect. Though cloud
providers can offer to test in private clouds, there are still concerns about the
security of data that may be stored in a remote location beyond a company’s
legal jurisdiction.
 Potential availability issues — While providers guarantee round-the-clock
availability of their services, even the least bit of downtime can cause negative
consequences to your testing processes. For instance, in 2013, Amazon Web
Services went down for less than half an hour, but during that time thousands
of companies were unable to test properties that required access to AWS.
 Service-level agreements — Vendors of cloud-based tools provide terms
and conditions of their cloud services that differentiate the responsibilities of
the vendor and the cloud user. Though these terms are necessary, they are
often written in a biased and misleading way. Pay close attention to such
conditions as data integrity, data preservation and transfer.
 Infrastructure issues — Before choosing cloud-based testing tools, make
sure the provider offers you all the configurations, technologies, and storage
you need. It may be difficult to emulate customer environments if you discover
that some configurations aren’t supported by the provider. Moreover, creating
a test environment that includes all the necessary settings and data can be
time-consuming for testers.
 Hidden costs — Though vendors inform their clients about prices for their
cloud-based services, the improper use of test environments may significantly
increase your costs. In order to avoid hidden costs, testers should thoroughly
plan their test environments, take into account additional costs such as for
data encryption, and monitor the use of cloud resources.
Types of testing in the cloud

In the cloud environment, any application can be subjected to the following types of
testing:

 Functional testing to ensure that software meets functional requirements

 Non-functional testing to ensure the quality of service
 Ability testing to show whether users will receive application services from
the cloud environment on-demand

Functional testing

Functional software testing checks all the features and functions of software and its
interaction with hardware. For conducting functional testing, testers can use such
tools as Rapise, Sauce Labs, and TimeShiftX. These cloud-based software testing
tools use the following techniques:

 System testing — This testing technique evaluates a system’s compliance

with functional and system requirements. It analyzes the system’s behavior
and design and how it meets the customer’s expectations.
 Acceptance testing — This proves that the application meets certain needs
of its users.
 Integration testing — This testing ensures that the application is compatible
with different platforms and works well when moving from one cloud
infrastructure to another.

Non-functional testing

Non-functional testing is also known as performance testing, as it allows you to

check the non-functional aspects of software like its performance, usability, and
reliability. For conducting this type of testing, you can use cloud-based tools such as
CloudTest, AppPerfect, CloudTestGo, and AppLoader. These testing tools offer the
following types of non-functional testing:

 Business requirement testing — Cloud applications are based on business

requirements, so organizations should carefully examine what they want from
a cloud solution before developing it. This testing technique verifies how
precisely an application meets the specified business requirements. This
technique also includes cloud availability testing, which ensures that the
application experiences no downtime.
 Security testing — This type of testing is necessary for ensuring that data is
stored and transmitted safely. Security mechanisms of applications are tested
according to three criteria: effectiveness, accuracy, and performance. The
most popular tools for testing security in the cloud are Nmap, Nessus, and
Wireshark.
 Scalability and performance testing — While cloud solutions should be
scalable on demand, this type of testing ensures that the application performs
correctly with various numbers of users. During load testing, testers measure
software response time while the system is subjected to increasing load. It’s
also necessary to check how the application will work under excessive stress,
so stress testing should also be executed. If you want to measure the
application response delay after deploying it in the cloud, then you can
conduct latency testing.

Ability testing

Ability testing is necessary to verify whether users really receive application services
on demand. To check this, the test team can conduct the following types of testing:

 Compatibility and interoperability testing — This testing evaluates the

application’s compatibility with various environments and platforms.
 Disaster recovery testing — Disasters are unpredictable and may cause
application downtime. Disaster recovery testing allows you to evaluate
 disaster recovery time and ensure that the application becomes available to
users again with minimum data loss.
 Multi-tenancy testing — This testing verifies whether the application can
ensure a sufficient level of security and access control when multiple users
invoke to it in the cloud.

Cloud-based tools for ability testing include ClickTest, BrowserStack, Quorum, and
Cloud Array.

How to prepare for cloud-based testing

Testing in the cloud can be more beneficial for organizations than testing on-
premise. The following tips may be helpful for testers in getting ready to use cloud-
based testing tools:

 Set clear objectives — Cloud-based testing has both advantages and

disadvantages, and you can benefit from it only when you have a clear
understanding of your business needs. Testing in the cloud requires closer
cooperation between developers and testers in order to conduct all necessary
tests throughout the software development lifecycle. Having clear objectives
when testing a particular application in the cloud will let you get more from
your cloud investment.
 Create your testing strategy — Before you move your project to the cloud,
decide what kinds of tests you want to perform, how much time they’ll take,
and what risks they may bring. This testing strategy allows you to better
estimate your testing budget and avoid unexpected costs.
 Plan your infrastructure — When creating your testing strategy, you should
also think about the infrastructure requirements that are necessary for building
a test environment. Make sure that cloud-based services provide the required
testing tools, software, hardware, and bandwidth. It’s also important to
determine how long you will need the test environment in this configuration
and whether any changes to it will be required.
 Select a reliable provider — When you’re looking for cloud-based testing
tools, look at each provider’s guarantee of security, quality, and reliability. It’s
better to choose a provider with considerable experience that ensures quick
set-up and tear-down of test environments. Pay attention to the range of
services offered, which should include physical infrastructure, testing tools,
licenses, and thorough provisioning.
 Determine service access — It may not be a good idea to provide access to
cloud-based services to only one tester, as this person will become
responsible for all issues that may happen during testing. To eliminate this
risk, provide service access to several testers. However, it’s better to limit
people’s access to testing services to what is required for doing their jobs in
order to avoid service overuse and additional costs.
 Use free trials — Most providers of cloud-based tools offer some sort of free
trial. For instance, Micro Focus, BrowserStack, and Sauce Labs allow testers
to experiment with how cloud testing tools will work with a tester’s toolchain.
Free trials will also let you learn more about the advantages and
disadvantages of each service.
 Monitor and analyze test results — While testing in the cloud allows
constant service availability, it’s better to monitor test results in real time. By
analyzing results in real time, testers can quickly react to capacity- or
performance-related issues