The cloud is a crucial part of the development and operations lifecycle; it defines how new applications are deployed and managed, how software is built and tested, and how environments are provisioned for running applications. It's also a defining factor in how new features are tuned and how changes to an application are rolled out.
Cloud testing is the ability of an organization to ensure that application performance meets their requirements, business boundaries, and use cases at the least possible operating cost.
Cloud testing is challenging because it's significantly different than traditional, on-premise software testing, and there are some things you need to do on your part to ensure success. Here are some challenges of cloud testing.
Network Connectivity
Sometimes your network connection isn't up to snuff, and that can prevent you from allowing cloud testing to happen. If you have a slow connection, this testing can take forever, and if you have a spotty signal, it could stop in the middle so that you don't get all the data you need -- which can be vital for algorithmic trading.
Your connection to your own company's cloud server (or even your office's Wi-Fi!) may not be consistent or fast enough for you to do your best work. You may have physical limitations or security restrictions, which might prevent you from accessing all the cloud testing tools you need. Other people in your company may also be trying to access the same tools simultaneously, which could slow down your workflow.
In some cases, other people may even try to access all of the cloud testing resources in your office all at once! This could lead to hours (or even days!) of downtime while other people wait their turn.
Cloud Security
Cloud security is the practice of protecting data on a network while it's being used in the cloud. This means preventing unauthorized access, data corruption, and theft.
Cloud security is necessary because your data is stored on servers managed by someone else, usually a third party like Google or Microsoft (or your company's own IT department). So while you may have full access to your data on your home computer or cell phone, that might not be true for your company's data.
It cannot be easy to know if your company's data is secure in the cloud. Security threats in the cloud include insider threats, unintentional threats, and malicious threats (such as malware affecting more than one machine). These threats can be minimized by implementing proper security measures such as encryption and firewalls or using industry-proving services like MQL5 Cloud Network.
The MQL5 Cloud Network is commonly used with the MetaTrader 5 strategy tester to test the various trading systems that are developed using the MQL5 programming language. Through its various features, the network has already completed more than 12,137,187 tasks. Over the course of its operation, the network has gained the capacity to house over 34,000 test agents. Anyone can sell the capacities of their agents and thus earn money for their MQL5.community account.
Lack of Tools to Support
One of the biggest challenges with cloud testing is a lack of tools support. To use these testing services, you need to integrate them into your existing development process. That's not always so easy it can be challenging to combine them with existing tools or get support for integrating those tools' providers.
Many companies don't want to talk about how hard it can be to adopt cloud testing. They worry that it will make them look less competitive, especially if they already have trouble attracting and retaining engineering talent. Some say it's because they're worried about giving away competitive information, but others say the real reason is that people don't want to admit how hard it is.
Many others acknowledge that cloud testing is helpful, but only if you can find someone to help (e.g. hiring a freelancer with a track of experience on MQL.community) you set it up and get it running smoothly.
Hardware and Operating System Compatibility
While the cloud has a lot to offer, its inherent nature causes some problems regarding hardware and operating system compatibility.
On the hardware side, cloud providers typically use virtual machines due to their cost-saving capabilities. Virtual machines can only run on specific computer processors and operating systems. This means that if your application requires a particular processor or operating system, you might experience errors while using a cloud testing platform.
Cloud providers typically use virtual machines due to their cost-saving capabilities. Virtual machines can only run on specific computer processors and operating systems. This means that if your application requires a particular processor or operating system, you might experience errors while using a cloud testing platform.
Modern computers spend a lot of their time idle, doing nothing. This is inefficient and not the best use of the hardware's potential. While this is an obvious inefficiency, cloud testing could improve the situation by allowing a group of idle computers to process each others' data. This would allow for a full load on the CPU to be processed faster than if it had to wait for its own hardware to finish.
Increased Testing Complexity
Another challenge is increased complexity in managing environments and virtual machines. The elasticity of resources that makes cloud-based testing so valuable also means that you have to manage more than one environment or platform.
Managing multiple environments and platforms can be difficult because it is hard to know if all your tests are running on the correct software versions (some tests might need Windows XP while others need Windows 10). It's also hard to know if you have enough space for all your difficulties.
Increased Cost of Infrastructure Maintenance
Cloud testing is great for teams with limited resources. But as you scale, your infrastructure maintenance costs can quickly outstrip the cost benefits of off-site testing. One solution to this problem is on-demand capacity testing. By dynamically spinning up massive amounts of servers for use during load tests, your team can avoid time-consuming server provisioning processes and the costs associated with them.
This approach has allowed you to quickly spin down servers when they're not in use, taking full advantage of cloud cost savings and avoiding unnecessary costs of idle servers.
Additionally, if you have a small team or limited budget, you might not have the resources necessary to make sure everything is running smoothly. This could lead to crashes and other problems with your application. In this case, using a cloud testing service is an excellent option that can save you money, time, and headaches.
Conclusion
Overall, the cloud is promising to enable us to thoroughly test your applications from a remote location without worrying about how it will impact our testing environment. The cloud will allow us to use our hardware better and work smarter instead of harder. We can help eliminate mundane testing and move the focus onto more rewarding and challenging aspects of software testing.