Provider of cloud testing SOASTA has announced additional points of presence for its Global Test Cloud, extending the reach of its platform for load and performance testing Web applications and consumer-facing websites.

This expansion adds locations in China, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Eastern Europe as well as new locations within the United States. Company officials said that this enables companies of all sizes to simulate real-world traffic and conditions by leveraging the elasticity and power of cloud computing. In the near future, the Global Test Cloud is expected to be further expanded to Japan, Brazil and the Middle East.

Thanks to this platform, cross-cloud testing from cloud providers -- Amazon EC2, IBM (News - Alert), Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, GoGrid, CA/3Tera AppLogic, RadixCloud, Enomaly -- is now possible. In addition, several private cloud sources deliver a comprehensive and affordable global testing solution, said company officials.

A fully automated, cross-cloud provisioning capability, CloudTest Grid powers the SOASTA (News - Alert) Global Test Cloud. Company officials said that the CloudTest Grid continues SOASTA’s success in reducing complexity and time to results for performance testing Web sites and applications, by allowing performance engineers to deploy hundreds, or even thousands of load servers around the globe.

“Since we first announced the Global Test Cloud in 2009 we’ve been working hard to improve both the ease of use and reach of the platform,” said Tom Lounibos (News - Alert), CEO at SOASTA.

The company recognized early on that by leveraging cloud computing, it could provide the most accurate representation of real world Web conditions, Lounibos said, adding that today, by working with the partners to take advantage of the accessibility and affordability of the cloud, and by using products like the CloudTest Grid, SOASTA’s customers can run tests that were simply impossible in the past.

Recently, Armada and SOASTA teamed up to validate that cloud environments built by Armada can meet demanding SLAs for business-critical applications.