The need for dependable and effective testing processes has never been greater than it is now, given the constantly changing nature of the software development environment. The development cycle is slowed, and the quality of new goods is decreased by manual testing techniques, which frequently involve a lot of human labor and might result in mistakes. Because of this, many development teams are automating their testing procedures and resolving these problems using cloud-based automated testing tools. We’ll examine the advantages and use cases of cloud-based automated testing in this post and how it might alter the way you test.
An In-Depth Look at Cloud-Based Automated Testing
Cloud test automation is a technique used by developers to quickly test individual software modules or large systems and confirm intended functionality. To detect and solve issues, stress test core systems, and boost the effectiveness of their quality assurance procedures, teams can run automated parallel tests in the cloud.
For instance, manual regression tests, which verify that nothing breaks whenever a developer submits a pull request, can require huge teams to put in dozens of hours of laborious effort. Instead, you may automate this effort by linking your product with your preferred testing suite using an API. Your cloud solution will perform these tedious duties, freeing up your team’s time and resources to focus on other development activities.
Integration of cloud automation testing is very advantageous for DevOps teams who use CI/CD pipelines for their development. Automated testing procedures integrated into the CI/CD pipeline can guarantee thorough regression, performance, and device QA checks take place before and after updates are delivered to production or staging environments as teams continue to automate processes that quickly push code updates to the cloud.
You can leverage the automation testing process by using a cloud-based platform like LambdaTest. It is a digital experience testing platform that allows the execution of automation testing across 3000+ real devices and OS combinations. It offers scalable and reliable cloud infrastructure that streamlines your testing workflow. It integrates with various automation testing tools and frameworks like Appium, Playwright, Selenium, and Cypress. Read the below section to learn about the advantages of Cloud-based automation testing in LambdaTest.
What Are The Advantages Of Cloud-Based Automated Testing?
Let’s look at some of the primary advantages of automated cloud software testing in LambdaTest
Low Total Cost Of ownership (TCO)
Cloud-based automation tools have substantially lower ownership costs than traditional test automation systems. The former demand less expensive per-seat licensing fees and don’t have as many hardware requirements. Additionally, cloud-based systems enable a high degree of component reuse in test scenarios. Testers can use the components to examine how software or apps operate on different gadgets (such as a desktop, tablet, or mobile services application).
Easy Access To Shared Resources
Users of cloud-based testing get 24/7 access to resources regardless of the device. 24/7 accessibility enables them to fulfill consumer needs promptly. Furthermore, early in the software development lifecycle, testers are able to spot faults and errors. Additionally, cloud-based environments enable effective test coverage in a short amount of time because QA teams based in various time zones can access the resources anytime they choose. Teams that have registered on the site are able to log in and begin testing right away. The cloud’s virtualized environment has the benefit of resource sharing at a cheap initial investment.
Simplified Recovery from Disaster
Traditional backup recovery solutions demand expensive maintenance and updates. Furthermore, it might not be able to recover crucial data in the event of a hardware failure. A simple click of a button is frequently all needed to access all materials when using cloud software testing. Additionally, because the data is spread across several servers, it can be restored if one of them fails. Therefore, cloud testing ensures the viability of your activities in the future. Enterprises can use the technology to prepare for audits by, for example, obtaining historical data.
Works With DevOps
It’s reasonable to assume that cloud computing and DevOps go together. If you’re unaware, the cloud offers the following DevOps benefits:
- Simple and rapid experimentation
- Remote observation
- Application installation, configuration, and deployment made simple
- Testing and reporting automation
- Similar test, production, and development infrastructure setup
- Once-off user access for comments
As a result, the cloud enables the entire team to start using DevOps very quickly.
Parallel Testing
Parallel testing was mentioned at the outset. Let’s now explain it in greater depth. Software test targets should include a variety of browsers, operating systems, platforms, and devices. Instead of following a predetermined order, you can run tests concurrently in any of these settings when you use the cloud. Because of the time-saving benefits of testing, cloud testing is advantageous for agile and CI techniques.
Additionally, businesses may increase the elasticity and coverage of both mobile and web platforms thanks to the cloud. Additionally, the correct cloud vendor will provide you with the capacity and resources needed to replicate various devices, users, requests, and more in order to test your program.
Environment That Can Be Modified
The organization may easily imitate the “end-user” environment with cloud-based software testing by tailoring it to their needs. Teams can quickly run many combinations and permutations of performance and load-testing scenarios, saving time and money. Each company may not be able to invest enough money in an offline grid to create a user-centric environment. Additionally, a significant percentage of the expense goes toward hosting and managing tests. Cloud-based testing can help with cost savings while also overcoming these constraints.
Updates For New Device Automatic
Suppose You must include a new testing framework for any OS or device you plan to test software on. You might need new hardware to support modification on a local test grid. In addition, you will need to spend a significant amount of time configuring things. However, moving to a cloud test grid makes updating automatic and integrating new devices as they hit the market a hands-off operation. The cloud testing companies manage software updates secretly and behind the scenes on your behalf. Simply said, cloud-based testing is designed to free up more of your time so that you may concentrate on improving your product while vendors update your test grid.
Types of Testing You Can Perform in the Cloud
Exploratory Testing
Testing “happy paths” or linear routes is crucial, but to expand your application’s test coverage and find buried faults and flaws, you must also employ exploratory testing. Automation may and should be used during exploratory testing. Artificially intelligent algorithms can create test cases automatically, ensuring that you are testing the widest range of user journeys imaginable.
Because of the exponential growth in the number of complicated user journeys, exploratory testing is inherently more time-consuming than regular linear testing. By utilizing parallelization, exploratory testing in the cloud may be completed faster and with 90%+ coverage of the system being tested.
Regression Testing
Applications are updated and modified frequently to enhance user experience. Regression testing makes sure that the software’s current functionality and usability haven’t been adversely affected by these updates (code changes). It might be challenging to keep up with all the upgrades and versions that require testing, though.
By using the cloud to increase the number of test environments available, your QA teams may run these regression tests alongside other feature and exploratory testing. By enhancing accessibility throughout the CI/CD pipeline to accelerate the software release cycle, cloud technology also boosts efficiency.
Non-invasive Testing
Non-invasive testing refers to the use of the user interface (UI) rather than code analysis to interact with the system being tested. In other words, it may be tested if a person can see it on the screen. Existing test scripts are readily broken by the rapid upgrades demanded by many web applications, which makes test maintenance extremely difficult.
Despite changes in core functionality and behavior, regular UI upgrades may be evaluated with ease, thanks to picture recognition and OCR. The ability of cloud-based test automation to simultaneously spin up SUTs on-demand boosts coverage and testing speed.
Web-Based Application Testing
Testing any web application for performance, functionality, security, and usability is known as web-based application testing. This depends on understanding how the application operates and ensuring a seamless user experience.
Understanding performance across various browsers, types of devices, screen resolution and size, and operating systems is greatly aided by cloud-based testing of web-based apps. Organizations can save money by deploying cloud-based device farms to replace their on-premises device farms.
Cloud-based test automation is the best option when the bulk of your users interact with your application online. Installing pre-configured test environments allows you to simulate and test actual user interactions in your app easily. Your teams will also save time with a model-based approach by eliminating the time-consuming test script maintenance required for linear test automation.
Cloud-based test automation eliminates this difficulty by launching pre-configured test environments that replicate actual user interactions. Your testers can save even more time by writing a single script that executes numerous tests across various SUTs when used with a model-based approach.
Conclusion
Automated testing in the cloud can enhance your testing workflow’s productivity, reliability, and scalability while improving the quality of your apps, reducing testing time, and accelerating your software delivery process. With the right automation technology, robust test suites, and easy integration into your CI/CD pipeline, you can set your software development workflow up for success in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.
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