Cloudy With A Chance Of Testing

A short blog on the cloud based technology and it’s SWOT

And the technology weather reports are coming in. We are going to have cloudy days and the future is holding a lot of promises. But the folks down here are worried as already they are facing daunting challenges in the conventional floods of mobile devices, the web services, computability, security, portability, testability, and quality assurance of this grand mix of high tech weather phenomenon.

With clouds overcasting the horizon the future is becoming questionable for testers. For developers, this change is weather forecast is pretty much satisfactory and enjoyable. However, for testers this journey of reaching the clouds seems a bit longer. It does not mean that it testers will not reach, it just mean that the thing is under evaluation window.

Cloud technology is not new as it’s been around past 15 years. Like any other system, a cloud based system offers similar opportunities for testers to test the application, and bring out the risk areas in it.

But this technology has grown so rapidly in past 5 years that now testers are required to re-visit their methods to cope up to this evolution. Here is a usable SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis for testers:

Strengths:

1. You have your previous experience of testing applications in physically built labs, complex networks, and dedicated project environments. You will use this experience of creating a more sophisticated environment using cloud and its’ resources
2. There is no need for you to knock several doors for resources, now the applications, tools, and support is all available on the cloud
3. There is no limit to time on cloud regarding resources availability. Use this as a strength.

Weaknesses:

1. Not everything is free on cloud. So buying the time slots for different arenas will cost high. For example, you wish to use Azure as project backbone, then you have to pay the time slot.
2. For individuals and freelancers, the unavailability of sufficient funds may result in a half-hearted approach for cloud accessibility.

Opportunities:

1. There is no end to it. You can now access loads of free information, share resources, manage teams and projects.
2. Client access is easier as there are no email involved, you will receive notifications on the desktop, and you are hooked up good.
3. Applications are now extended on clouds, software becomes no more than a utility, and available with several extensions. This creates a huge opportunity window for developers as the market reach for any popular applications is immense, and making just a n extension for that application is highly profitable. Facebook, is one of example.

Threats:

1. Biggest threat so far? Well, obviously it’s the security. You can protect your intellectual property more efficiently if it resides in your own vicinity and desktop. But if you are keeping it on someone else’s computer, network or domain, then the responsibility to secure that asset becomes far critical than ever.
2. A lot of companies are now developing tools to secure and audit cloud based resources and services. (this is an opportunity hidden well under a threat)

And that’s about it. What we can perceive from where we are right now, is that we can see what’s up there, but getting up there is still a question of cost, time, and resources.

Things are clearing up on the horizon, and soon we shall see more clearly.

Till then, the weather down here on the desktop looks really good.