Five Benefits of Cloud Test Automation for Faster Development at Scale

One significant topic of discussion within our company has been how cloud test automation drives business transformation and improves performance. Many subdomains benefit from migrating to a cloud-based service. In the following paragraphs, we’ll explore the impact of cloud test automation on development cycle speed, maintenance, accessibility, and security. When the entire testing infrastructure is provided as a service, your company can scale rapidly without stumbling over testing bottlenecks.

Here are five key ways cloud test automation removes these bottlenecks to accelerate your development lifecycle.

1. Benefits of a Service-Based Model

The Software as a Service (SaaS) business model has proliferated in the last ten years for a good reason: the global marketplace puts extraordinary emphasis on business evolution. These conditions have driven many companies to focus on core competencies. Beyond just SaaS, software companies have adopted Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to dynamically build their services on top of pre-existing infrastructure. 

Cloud Testing Infrastructure in the Platform Era

IaaS also supports rapid scaling and concentration on core competencies. Accordingly, testing and test automation have begun to shift into the platform era. A test development platform eliminates the need to set up your own testing infrastructure. As a result, your company will enjoy lower maintenance costs and the flexibility to quickly change your setup as needed.

2. Scalability of Cloud Test Automation

Cloud platforms are built to scale according to your needs. As a result, your test setup can grow organically without the incremental hardware investments on-prem scaling requires, which can become outdated rapidly as technology advances. 

In addition, testing processes have notoriously variable workloads. Typical testing peaks and valleys throughout your development cycle, such as ramping up testing before major releases, can lead to unsustainable hardware costs.

Reduce Hardware Costs by Moving Testing to the Cloud

When you purchase testing equipment, the hardware needs the capacity to sustain vigorous testing during your busiest periods. However, it may be left to languish under a light load for the remainder of the development cycle. Cloud test automation eliminates this dilemma entirely. It allows you to allocate resources dynamically to meet fluctuating needs. In other words, you’ll only ever pay for what you need. 

3. Integrated Test Setup Accessibility

Test setup accessibility is equally important. Transferring pieces of the development pipeline to a cloud can create issues for local test setups. When your test setups are situated behind firewalls or other access limitations, your testers’ and developers’ workloads involve additional steps, such as configuring and working over a VPN. 

Easy Access Management 

Transferring the entire setup to the cloud allows you to take advantage of common access managers, like the Microsoft Azure active directory (which is nearing a complete cloud transfer itself). This type of service facilitates employee access management and strengthens cybersecurity without inhibiting remote capabilities.

4. Strengthened Cybersecurity

A common misconception about cloud environments is that they are less secure than local ones. However, local environments often give a greater impression of security than they actually provide. In turn, people may become lax with security protocols. Blunders, like sharing credentials or writing passwords down on a Post-it note, can result in security breaches.

If your company network is compromised, your servers, testing, and sensitive data will be up for grabs to bad actors. Encryption can mitigate the damage, but be honest. When was the last time you encrypted your local testing machines and their databases? Encryption can and should happen natively on the cloud because of the hostility of the open internet. 

Secrets Management in the Cloud

Cloud services have quickly evolved to incorporate many security features that local setups may not have. Secrets management is an excellent example of how cloud infrastructure enables enhanced security measures. A secrets manager in the cloud can allow multiple people to use a single password, despite just one employee knowing the password. This accessibility measure means better password and configuration security on top of your already encrypted, logged, and access-managed environment. 

5. Faster Development Cycles with Low-Code Cloud Services

We saved the best for last: rapid development cycles. Cloud test automation allows you to create new test environments quickly, scale them to the appropriate level, and provide authorized users with secure access from any location. Faster development cycles drive innovation by outsourcing administrative responsibilities, allowing your company to shift focus towards your core competencies.

Low-code platforms facilitate this process by allowing people without much development experience to handle key tasks. The emergence of low-code platforms has been part of a decades-long shift in software development towards greater abstraction, which has brought benefits like:

• Eliminating the need to manage the memory of your applications manually 
• Increasing the speed at which you can mock-up mobile applications
• Enabling faster prototype development to test hypotheses

So what does all of this mean for your business? In part, it translates to a much faster and more scalable business model. Streamlining development, security, and testing processes is highly lucrative for any company. Outsourcing maintenance responsibilities to those who consider it one of their core competencies guarantees optimal performance and integrity. Additionally, it allows your business to concentrate efforts on its own core competencies, conserving valuable resources, like time and effort.  

What Can Cloud Test Automation Do for Me?

For a more detailed introduction to cloud testing platforms, check out this introductory video. Copado Robotic Testing’s hyper-scalable testing platform uses machine vision for easy-to-use testing scripting.