SOASTA CloudTest (formerly known as the SOASTA sBox, and before that SOASTA Concerto) is a Web services-based platform that enables development teams and shops to load test Web applications. The individual components of the platform operate as Web services and/or browser-based GUIs and can be accessed from remote locations. The platform is served as a pre-loaded hardware appliance, or an on-demand browser-accessible service.

The CloudTest GUI interface is AJAX-based, and provides the ability to manage the recording of individual and re-usable test clips (a visually managed and edited script that includes a sequence of events such as HTTP messages, SOAP exchanges, or browser interface events) and the building of collected test clips into specific load test scenarios for deployment and execution.

The former capability--the creation and management of test clips--is facilitated through the product's recording and clip editing features. Recording of clips is performed through the management of distributed agents called "Conductors" which have the ability to record message traffic (Conductors are controlled through the Concerto GUI), and a "convert to clip" wizard with the ability to translate recordings into test clips; while test clip editing is facilitated via a visual clip editor with drag and drop controls as well as timing and sequence tools and copy/paste (through the clipboard) support. A pre-defined library of test clips is also included with the product.

Collecting test clips into re-deployable test scenarios is the job of the Composition Editor, which features timeline-based editing of messages. Playback features in the Composition Editor provide the ability to launch a composed test against a target Web application, with repeat, pause, and fast-forward controls.

As tests are executed, monitoring features of the product provide the ability to capture usage details at the Web server, application server, or DB server levels. Monitoring capabilities can be implemented in an agent-less (leveraging technologies such as SSH, SNMP, and RMI) or agent-based (via Conductors) fashion.

Finally, the Analytic Dashboard is a purpose designed in-memory service (with persistence to disk) that specializes in the analysis of load test result sets. The Analytic Dashboard is capable of correlating multiple data streams from distributed tests into a single, synchronized test result stream.

As mentioned, SOASTA CloudTest can be purchased as a hosted service (for outside-in testing of Web apps) or as an on-site appliance for within-the-firewall testing. The onsite appliances, in particular, are now offered in four flavors; ranging from the UI Test Appliance, with support for functional and light load testing of applications with up to 100 virtual users; to the Production Test Appliance for 24x7 load testing. Pricing is set at $10 per instance for the hosted service (with an instance defined as a test of up to 100 virtual users, for a duration of one hour) and starting at $1,000 a month for a CloudTest appliance.

Contact the vendor for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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