Blokland K. - Testing Cloud Services How to Test SaaS, PaaS & IaaS

Testing Cloud Services

Kees Blokland has worked for Polteq as a senior test consultant since 2003 and has over twenty years experience in the testing profession. As the R&D manager, he has always been closely involved in testing innovations at Polteq. Kees is the first-line contact on cloud issues for customers and colleagues. He teaches many practical and theoretical courses in the field of testing and he is an experienced speaker on the national and international test stage.

Jeroen Mengerink has worked for Polteq since 2008 and is a test consultant. In addition to his work for customers, he is involved in various Polteq testing innovations. Jeroen is the first-line contact on Agile issues for colleagues and customers. He is a trainer for a diverse assortment of testing trainings, including the subjects of Agile, SOA and Cloud. He is also interested in the field of test automation.

Martin Pol has played a significant role in helping to raise the awareness and improve testing in Europe, Asia and the Americas, since 1983. He has gained experience by managing testing processes and implementing adequate testing in different branches of many organizations. He was responsible for the creation of international testing standards and models for test process improvement. Martins extensive experience and knowledge formed the unique architectural foundation for the approach in this fine book.

Polteq is an independent provider of international software testing services based in The Netherlands and Belgium. Polteq testing professionals are requested to execute test assignments or to help solve testing issues worldwide. Polteq offers consultancy and training for testing cloud services under the commercial label Cloutest.

How to Test SaaS, PaaS & IaaS

Kees Blokland
Jeroen Mengerink
Martin Pol

Kees Blokland, Jeroen Mengerink, Martin Pol

Editor: Dr. Michael Barabas/Maggie Yates

Copyeditor: Judy Flynn

Proofreader: Carey Hobart

Project Manager: Matthias Rossmanith

Layout: Josef Hegele

Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de

Printer: Edwards Brothers Malloy

Printed in the USA

ISBN 978-1-937538-38-5

1st Edition

2013 by Rocky Nook Inc.

Rocky Nook Inc.

802 East Cota St., 3rd Floor

Santa Barbara, CA 93103

www.rockynook.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blokland, Kees, 1962
Testing cloud services: how to test SaaS, PaaS & IaaS / Kees Blokland, Jeroen Mengerink, Martin Pol. -- 1st
edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-937538-38-5 (pbk.)
1. Cloud computing. 2. Application software--Testing. I. Mengerink, Jeroen. II. Pol, Martin, 1947- III. Title.
QA76.585.B56 2013
004.6782--dc23
2013022943

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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

I consider myself very lucky to be the executive lead of Polteq. The foundation of this company is a mix of experienced and young IT workers; the combination of doing, learning, improving and appreciating makes the cooperation a blast for the Polteq employees as well as for the customers.

Since it was founded in 2000, Polteq has always paid a lot of attention to the development of the test profession. A renowned test company like Polteq cannot, therefore, ignore the cloud. In 2008, the first steps were made to develop an approach for testing cloud services. Studies, experience, perseverance and a hefty R&D budget have resulted in a unique and, most of all, practical approach for testing applications in the uncertain digital cloud.

No one needs to invent the cloud-testing wheel anymore, since Kees Blokland, Jeroen Mengerink and Martin Pol have done that already, together with many colleagues.

This book will enable you to start right away and help you navigate the process of testing in the cloud. It is probably clear that we at Polteq, and me in particular, are thrilled to have reached this milestone. It may not surprise you that Polteq offers consultancy and training for testing cloud services. For that we chose the commercial label Cloutest.

Alain Bultink
CEO Polteq Test Services BV

We all have heard about the cloud, even without knowing it. When you receive a link to download a file online for instance, you probably are already in the cloud. As a user you dont stop and think about the risks. What if, for instance, thousands of people simultaneously download this file? Can you accept the fact that this process will be extremely slow? Or when you send an email with your online client application, you very much would like it to be sent with the appropriate privacy. The entire world, of course, is able to access the cloud.

The term cloud comes from the fact that data packages no longer travel along a defined path. One doesnt know any longer by which path they reach their end point. We can no longer say for certain which route has been taken. This explanation contains a number of aspects that, as a tester, makes you think. No defined path and no longer say for certain are aspects that we as testers actually are not really looking forquite the opposite. How can we make a statement about quality without having these certainties? Cloud computing has proven its use over the past years, and nobody doubts that anymore. But it quickly becomes clear that cloud computing brings a certain number of specific risks. As testers, we often say, We can test everything! But is this true? Are we really ready to test cloud computing applications?

And then I was asked by Kees, Jeroen, and Martin to write this preface. My first thought was, Finally, a book on testing applications developed for the purpose of cloud computing. During conferences we gradually gained some information, but it still was a puzzle to create a complete approach. But we did, and that is exactly what you can find in this book. This book even goes further than the questions I originally had. It is also about how we can use cloud computing to execute our tests. It provides a very structured overview of what cloud computing actually is and how as a test manager you need to position your tasks.