Top 6 Cloud Testing Tools That Can Define Your Testing Strategy

Recently the web developing market has witnessed certain revolutionary moves and massive demands. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the industry with both positive and negative effects. On the positive side, due to the social distancing norms, people are forced to shift their activities to the online world. This practice boosted the demands for business and service websites. Essential services like health and banking are also completely online now. On the negative side, the work from home culture has adversely reduced the workforce for developing companies. Therefore, the companies had to find several innovative solutions to tackle this issue. Integrating advanced technologies into the core workbench was one of those solutions. These integrations include cloud-based testing and even the use of Artificial intelligence. 

With this article, we will explore the world of cloud testing for web applications. We will also find the best cloud testing tools according to your requirements.  Before that, we need to understand the basics of web testing on cloud.

What is Cloud Testing

To ensure the smooth functioning of a web application, you need to test its performance on every browser, operating system and device combination.  Moreover, you also have to ensure that none of the physical specifications of a device harms the performance of the web application.  These specifications include the screen size, display resolution and core frequency. The traditional approach to solve this problem was to physically verify the performance of the application on every combination one by one. It was a time-consuming process as it involved complete manual test cases. Some market studies also revealed that it could take as long as 5 days to complete the test cases. In this competitive Development Industry, you must strive to deliver high-quality web applications as soon as possible. This is because you cannot expect your customers to stick to your company just because of brand loyalty.  

Another problem of manual testing was that the developers had to keep all the devices physically available in the company. The maintenance of a physical test bench is a highly expensive process. The best way to solve all these problems is the introduction of cloud testing. Cloud testing is the process of conducting all the test cases on an online cloud server. Using this technology, the developers can perform test cases on any device from anywhere in the world. It also helps to eliminate the hassle and expenses of maintaining a physical device testing lab. Modern cloud testing frameworks helps the developers to perform test cases on emulators, virtual machines and even real devices. 

The Benefits of Cloud-Based App Testing

The benefits of cloud testing help web development companies to increase the efficiency in the test cases. Let us analyze some of the major benefits of this Advanced technology:

• Scalable: The scalability of cloud testing infrastructure helps web developers to customize the test cases according to their requirements. For instance, they can change the load on the test cases according to the frequency of customers.  

• Cost Efficient: With Cloud Testing, the companies only have to pay for the resources that they are currently using. This means the developers no longer have to pay for purchasing, maintaining and updating an entire test bench. 

• Increases Team Collaboration: Cloud testing helps web developing companies to integrate DevOps in the test bench.  Using this technology, the companies can improve the coordination between different teams of a web application developing project.  Experts believe that this process has a significant role in improving the overall quality of the web application. 

Best Cloud Testing Tools to Define the Test Strategy

Tools and platforms play an important role in the cloud testing process. Tools also have a vital role in simplifying the testing processes for a company. Currently, there are thousands of tools and platforms available in the market. Web development companies must perform a proper tool selection process to find the perfect tool according to their requirements. During this process, they can consider certain factors like the company requirements, project budget and preferences. Having a proper idea about the latest cloud testing Trends will also assist during this process. To reduce the confusion, we have short-listed six of the best test automation tools for a company. Let us learn more about them in detail: 

1. LambdaTest

Instead of being a tool, LambdaTest is a web testing platform hosted on cloud. Using this platform, the developers can verify the cross-browser compatibility of their web applications. Cross-browser compatibility testing ensures that the web application remains functional irrespective of the browser or the browser version. This platform conducts all the test cases on an online Selenium Grid. 

LambdaTest helps to verify the proper functioning of a web application on a device farm of more than 3000 different Browsers and browser versions. Using this platform, the developers can also analyze the impact of different operating systems and devices on the application. LambdaTest generates highly accurate test results by compiling different reports from virtual machines, emulators and even real devices. So, the developer can use these final tests for further bug detection processes. Using LambdaTest, the developers can also verify the proper functioning of all locally hosted web pages. 

Parallel testing is another unique feature that is offered by this cloud testing platform. Using parallel testing, the developers can initiate multiple test instances simultaneously. This means that the developers can verify the functioning of the application on thousands of different browsers and operating systems at the same time. This process massively helps to reduce the total testing period. 

2. CloudTest

CloudTest Is a popular tool to perform automation testing on web applications using Cloud Servers. Using this tool, the developers can initiate four types of automation test cases at the same time. This tool was developed by SOASTA. The primary objective of this cloud-based testing tool is to perform load and performance testing of web applications. It is very popular for performing test cases on both mobile and web applications. For mobile testing, it allows the developers to customize the test cases according to the target device.  This cloud testing tool was initially released in 2008. This tool helps to analyze the total load on the web application while it is on its peak performance. 

It has a unique way of performing the load testing processes. CloudTest can recreate the scenario of multiple concurrent users visiting the website at the same time. With this feature, it can analyze the load handling capabilities of the app. It is a very user-friendly tool and offers real-time analytics with reporting. The new users can also try the open-source CloudTest Lite for free. However, it has limited features compared to the main version. 

3. LoadStorm

We can understand the purpose of LoadStorm just by analyzing its name. It is yet another cloud-based tool to analyze the load handling capabilities of a mobile and web application. It is the perfect tool to test how your application performs under excessive load. To complete this process, this tool will create an unlimited number of virtual users. It will continue this process until it determines the breaking point for the web application. The developers can use the final test report for making necessary changes according to the target audience. LoadStorm is very easy to use and the companies will also find it very economical. Developers can also customize the test cases according to their requirements. It also comes with various predefined test cases to help the new testers. 

4. BlazeMaster

BlazeMaster is a complete cloud-based testing suite. The developers can use this tool to verify the functioning of mobile applications, desktop apps, web applications and even APIs. Using this tool, developers can simulate unlimited virtual users across different geo-locations.  The primary goal of this process is to ensure the accessibility of the application. This is because, in this competitive industry, a company cannot isolate a segment of the user base due to their location. The companies can also integrate this tool with other open-source frameworks and increase the efficiency of the testing bench. For instance, the developers can integrate it with Selenium, Grinder and JMeter. 

5. Nessus 

Nessus is a popular tool that developers use to verify the vulnerability of web applications. It runs vulnerability testing across different firewalls, devices and cloud Infrastructures. It also helps to detect various cloud hosting threats like malware, viruses, back door linking and web services. In simple terms, it is a cloud-based tool to verify the proper security of a web application. The developing companies can also use this tool as a compliance auditing tool for essential services like banking domains and Healthcare. This tool will generate detailed reports that the companies can forward to other email addresses. With this process, the developers can analyze various loopholes that might be present in the framework. 

6. AppPerfect

AppPerfect is a cloud testing tool that provides essential solutions to perform multiple test cases. For instance, the developers can use this tool to perform Cloud-hosted testing, cloud load testing and Cloud Security testing. Using this tool, the developer can test the functioning of the web app on different hardware configurations, browsers and OSs. It also provides various features to improve the testing experience for the developers. For instance, developers can use this tool to perform distributed testing, schedule test execution over a cloud platform, designing and documenting the test scripts, accessing and exporting test results. It will even allow detailed reporting for all the features of cloud load testing. It also offers various services to improve the cloud-hosted testing process. For instance, the cloud-hosted test cases are on-demand, professionally managed and flexible. 

Using this tool, the developers can also automate the test cases to reduce the overall testing time. It also helps to improve the quality of the software. 

The Conclusion

So, we can conclude that cloud-based testing is one of the essential modern technologies to improve the quality of your web application. To keep up with the modern competitive industry, the developers should try every possible way to improve their testing strategies. It is also important to conduct market research and understand the preferences of your target audience. This practice will help you to customize the testbench according to your preferences. As a developer, you must remember that your primary goal is to increase user retention rates and decrease bounce rates. The understanding of modern technologies like cloud testing will also help to improve your future career. Lastly, web development companies should consider the importance of the tool selection process. This process will directly affect the company’s testing capabilities.