Building a cloud computing testing strategy
Preparing a reliable cloud computing testing strategy is an important part of any software delivery workflow. Testing small batches of code quickly minimizes the chances of bugs making it to the later stages, thus greatly reducing the time needed for bug fixing and ultimately reducing the time-to-market for your products and services. This ensures you utilize the benefits of cloud infrastructure in full, like:
- Virtualization. Running testing environments atop Kubernetes clusters and Terraform infrastructure means they can be deployed and configured nearly instantly, as compared to manual delivery and configuration of testing servers.
- Versioning. Terraform manifests are text files written in a simple declarative language that hold all the testing environment parameters. They can be adjusted easily so every developer can get exactly the needed testing environments without having to bother the Ops engineers.
- Automation. Testing environments work best as a part of an automated CI/CD pipeline, when they can be provisioned immediately after a developer commits a new batch of code and a new app version is ready to be tested. Successful tests result in an automated push to a staging environment for high-level QA checks, unsuccessful ones result in a bug report, so the developer can begin fixing bugs at once.
- App continuity. When all the environments from IDE to production are created using the same manifests, the code works in the same conditions, which ensures app performance continuity.
- Reproducibility. Every Docker container built from the same image runs exactly the same wherever Docker is installed, so the exact conditions can be easily reproduced by distributed teams. This is essential for ensuring your product works the same throughout all the stages of the software development cycle.
Thus said, cloud testing environments can be of great help for your business. However, the benefits listed above are applied only if your cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines are configured correctly. This demands a thorough understanding of the principles and best practices of cloud infrastructure management, and a well-thought-out cloud testing strategy.
The key requirement here is enabling the CI/CD pipelines, where the output of one stage becomes the input for the next stage of the SDLC. Essentially, it means every code commit can become a new app version and such releases can be seamlessly delivered to end-users through in-app updates on restart — just the way Telegram, Facebook or Instagram do it.
As an IT outsourcing company and a Managed Services Provider, IT Svit has ample experience with enabling automated cloud computing testing through building virtualized infrastructures and CI/CD pipelines to support it. We are developing software and web apps for 10+ years and provide full-stack software development services. During the 6+ years of providing managed DevOps services, we have successfully accomplished more than 800+ projects, and we can quickly build and configure infrastructure and processes that fit your unique project requirements.
If you need assistance with forming a cloud computing testing strategy and providing the infrastructure and workflows required for it — IT Svit is glad to assist!
