Assuming you haven’t spent the last couple of years living under a rock, you’re bound to have been bombarded with all sorts of propaganda about “The Cloud.” “The Cloud,” according to the marketing types, is the greatest thing since the invention of bread, surely able to solve all of our needs, whether technology-related or not. While the hype for the cloud might be frequently and frustratingly overstated and confusingly applied in odd places (can someone please explain to me the Microsoft Cloud commercial where the woman goes “to the cloud!!” so she can generate a family photo? What does this have to do with the cloud? Isn’t this just Photoshop?), I’d like to discuss one place where the cloud adds a great deal of value: Load and Performance testing.
In this article, I’m going to talk about the benefits of using the cloud as part of your load and performance testing practices, as well as point out some common approaches in choosing a cloud solution.
In a future article, I’ll discuss some of the challenges the cloud presents and some best practices to deal with these challenges.