infoTECH Feature

September 15, 2014

HP Cloud-based Load Testing Speeds Quality Large Scale App Time-to-Market

There can be little doubt that in a world where competitive pressures and user demands means the production and dissemination of quality applications that are massively scalable and interoperable with the growing array of device and environments that need to be interacted with must be done in days not weeks and months. This raises challenges regarding performance testing and application delivery.

In this regard, Agile (News - Alert) development groups and DevOps people in general along with quality assurance (QA) folks are going to be interested in HP’s expansion of its Performance Testing Suite with the addition of HP StormRunner Load. This latest capability is focused specifically on helping accelerate application quality and delivery via a simple, intuitive and scalable cloud-based platform. It joins HP’s existing performance testing solutions, which include HP LoadRunner and HP Performance Center.

Let’s face it, speed is of the essence but so is getting it right.

A little background may be in order for readers not totally familiar with app development and testing. As the name implies Agile development is about the use of making software development using the Agile Methodology. This approach is an alternative to traditional “waterfall” project management where teams have only one chance to get each aspect of development right.  Agile provides opportunities to assess the direction throughout the development lifecycle taking. When an Agile team stops and re-evaluates the direction of a project every two weeks, there’s time to steer it in another direction. This “inspect-and-adapt” approach greatly reduces development costs and time to market.

HP StormRunner Load specifically targets those Agile development teams looking to apply smarter testing techniques into development, enabling them to:

  • Extend the value of their existing investment in HP Performance Testing Solutions by addressing the unique needs of Agile testing. Teams can reuse test scripts between the solutions and use HP StormRunner Load to dynamically scale.
  • Speed up the delivery of new business solutions by testing earlier and more accurately without slowing dev and test sprints or adding extra overhead, facilitated by a simple and scalable cloud solution.
  • Develop more optimal and scalable business applications by improving performance and user experience for increased user engagement using a Node.js back end to empower testing of more dynamic web and mobile apps.
  • Gain deep insights into key performance metrics on their performance testing, including analytics that help determine the root causes of issues.  

HP is adding this capability to its portfolio to specifically to address the explosive app growth of mobile and cloud.

“As enterprises continue to migrate applications and solutions to the cloud, they need to ensure that the performance of their applications will not degrade as the volume of users increases,” said Raffi Margaliot, general manager, Application Delivery Management, HP Software. “HP StormRunner Load is designed specifically to help Agile teams deliver scalable, high-performing cloud-based modern apps while also helping them capitalize on their existing investments in HP.”

A screen shot of the HP StormRunner Load shows the type of information available and gives a glimpse into the ease of use at work here. 

Image via HP (click to enlarge)

In speaking to Genefa Murphy, director of mobile product management, analytics and user experience at HP she noted that, “the cloud really is the best way to get load testing done quickly, accurately and efficiently.”

 She noted the good news is that HP is seeing more and more Agile teams in their customer base as the need for speed becomes paramount particularly in regards to the cloud and mobile. “We have made StormRunner Load not just to address the applications migration to the cloud and the need for mobility friendliness as the need to assure apps work on potentially millions of devices emerges, but we have also made this to facilitate faster and more meaningful collaboration in the entire development and deployment lifecycle. The goal is to not just eliminate the time and costs of water-falling, but to speed things up by giving Agile, DevOps and QU people the tools they need to work together and do so more efficiently and effectively.”

She added there are three guiding principles behind StormRunner Load.

  • Simplicity: The goal of StormRunner Load is to have a very simple design that allows users to create a load test in 10 minutes.
  • Smarts: Real-time analytics, anomalies and issues. (These have been beta tested by and Murphy says the feedback was excellent).
  • Scalability:  It is build to scale through a million virtual load tests.

All three of the principles are important in the context of increasing agility in the app development and testing process. And, the addition of scalability as we move into the Internet of Things (IoT) era is only going to become more critical.  




Edited by Maurice Nagle
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