Cloud application testing refers to the process of evaluating and validating the functionality, performance, security, and reliability of software applications that are hosted on cloud computing platforms. This type of testing is specifically focused on applications that are designed to run in cloud environments, such as Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) deployments.
Types Of Cloud Application Testing
Cloud testing environments provide for a greater range of functional and non-functional tests. The following are some examples of testing in cloud environments:
System Testing
This guarantees that all application functionalities perform as expected.
Testing for Interoperability
Interoperability testing evaluates whether or not application performance is hindered by infrastructure changes.
Performance assessment.
This involves stress and load testing to ensure that the application performs consistently under increasing load or stress circumstances.
Testing for Availability
This ensures that there will be no outages if any functional modifications are done at the cloud level.
Multi-Tenancy Testing
This assures that the programme has no performance or security flaws and that it runs smoothly even when a large number of users access it.
Security Test
This form of testing is required to guarantee that the application is ready to deal with any data or security breach. Security tests enable testers to identify and eradicate all potential security flaws in the application.
Testing for Disaster Recovery
This software testing assures that no important data is lost due to downtime or memory outages.
Browser Performance testing
It is similar to browser compatibility testing in that the application is evaluated across a variety of browsers, operating systems, and devices. Browser performance testing assures that the application provides a consistent user experience independent of the hardware or software being tested.
Cloud Native Application Testing Strategies
It’s no surprise that a continuous testing strategy helps firms save time and money while producing better goods. A cloud-native programme can be tested in a variety of ways, just like anything else. We’ll concentrate on the four most important ones here:
1. Unit Testing
Unit testing is the process of testing each individual unit of an application separately. This assists in determining whether every component of the application is functioning properly. Unit testing is also useful for isolating and resolving errors in particular areas of an application before integrating them with the rest of the application.
Here are some of the benefits of unit tests:
- They are both quick and affordable.
- They are not affected by the environment.
- They are simple to use and produce gleaming results.
- They do not result in an unintentional code alteration.
Above all, unit tests are excellent for determining the stability and dependability of the microservice components utilized within a cloud application.
2. Component Testing
After all individual pieces of a microservice have been evaluated, component-level tests on each microservice in isolation must be performed. This is accomplished by individually testing each microservice.
Component testing allows you to examine the performance and functioning of the cloud app’s microservices. This manner, you can be certain that each microservice performs exactly as expected.
3. Integration Testing
This is exactly what it sounds like: integrating all of the microservices and validating their compatibility. Integration testing aids in understanding the interactions of microservices and how they communicate with one another.
Integration testing can identify whether the services are cooperating to achieve the bigger functional logic. This form of testing can also be used to determine whether new features will work with current apps.
4. End-to-end Testing
This is the most difficult test to use. This level of testing requires analysing the cloud app’s operation at the maximum level of integration from the user’s perspective. As a result, these take the most time and resources. When performing such a test, it is also easy to lose focus.
To avoid this, here is a list of things to keep in mind during all of the above levels of testing:
- App endurance
- Scalability level
- Functionality
Important cloud testing challenges
There are various problems to cloud-based testing that you should consider before implementing it. Let’s take a closer look at the operational problems that QA specialists should be prepared to face:
- Lock-in of vendors — Because public cloud providers establish their own designs and operational models, cloud-based services have little interoperability. It isn’t an issue until you decide to change vendors and tools. Then you may encounter difficulties in transferring your data and test setups.
- Lack of control – You have no control over changes to cloud-based services because it is the provider’s job to maintain and update them. A supplier may force an upgrade that deprecates features you use or modify interfaces, forcing you to restructure your testing environment.
- Concerns about security and privacy – Many people are concerned about cloud security because not all cloud-based testing companies use dependable encryption and data protection mechanisms. Some systems allow you to test in a private cloud, but this does not remove worries about the security of data kept outside your organization’s secured perimeter.
- Issues with availability — While suppliers claim 24-hour availability of their services, even minor downtime might have a severe impact on your testing activities. For example, in 2021, Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft services were down for some time. As a result, developers and testers all over the world were unable to access Azure-based cloud services.
Misleading service-level agreements
Cloud-based tool vendors set terms and conditions for their cloud-based services that differentiate the vendor’s and the cloud user’s duties. These terms are necessary, however they are frequently written in a biased and deceptive manner. Pay particular attention to conditions such as data integrity, data retention and transfer, and upgrade notice time.
Problems with infrastructure
Before selecting a cloud-based testing tool, ensure that the provider provides all of the options, technologies, and storage that you require. If you learn that specific configurations aren’t supported by your supplier, it may be challenging to imitate customer setups. Furthermore, testers may find it time-consuming to create a test environment that includes all necessary settings and data.
Hidden costs
Although suppliers provide clients with pricing information for their cloud-based services, inappropriate use of test environments can drastically increase your expenditures. To avoid hidden costs, QA and DevOps engineers should meticulously organize their test environments, factor in additional expenditures such as data encryption, and closely monitor the utilization of cloud resources.
Noncompliance
If your company is required to follow data security laws, rules, and standards, it is your obligation to ensure that the cloud-based tools and services it employs are also compliant. It can take a long time to find compliant tools and verify compliance. Furthermore, there is always the possibility that your provider would not strictly adhere to security rules.
Best Practices
- Assemble a diverse testing team. Create a cross-functional team to provide app support and anticipate potential problems. The team must be agile, and content experts are required to guarantee that all factors are considered.
- Additional functions should be tested and approved. First, attempt to keep to the original design for the application’s basic functionality; the testing phase isn’t the time or place to add features. If you must add modest new features or functionalities, acquire everyone’s approval before testing and vetting the modifications to understand their broader implications.
- Plan for security from the beginning. Security permissions concerns happen frequently and can limit an app’s functionality; nevertheless, avoid the urge to make large-scale changes to get things going right away. Include time in your cloud migration strategy to handle these issues.
- Design and security must be balanced with important functionality. Take the time and make the effort to address all aspects of cloud migration early on, including functionality, user experience, and security. These are not independent issues that may be addressed in stages; they are interrelated and must be treated as such.
- Plan for substantial changes and push for more. IT is always able to fit what is needed into what is available. Divide cloud migration testing into what management wants, needs, and anticipates. Create a testing framework for doing daily and weekly checks on important modifications to the underlying application or platform. If more resources are available, advocate for greater consistency.
- Increase the size of your user testing teams. Coordinate user testing with a diverse group of testers with varying backgrounds and positions. Include both experienced and inexperienced cloud users. Most end users are uninterested in the inner workings of the cloud, but they see your application and have specific performance expectations. And they may know it a little better than you do.
- Cost trends can be identified by regular testing. Cloud migration testing does not focus on cost management, but it does expose what an app performs when it runs on the cloud. As a result, frequent cloud migration testing can assist an organisation in better understanding data flows, usage patterns, and important dependencies. That ensures there will be no surprises when the bill arrives.
Last Thoughts
Creating a cloud testing plan is a difficult task. It involves extensive research and a committed team. Hence, its best to go for cloud application testing services who have in-depth knowledge in this area. However, by implementing each technique described and assessing the success factors, your organization will limit any risks that may develop in your cloud environment by adhering to the cloud application testing best practices.
