Teams adopting Agile development practices typically embrace open-source tools, reiterative development lifecycles and short sprint planning to help them minimize bottlenecks and release quality code faster. But testing for API, function, load and performance in such a short timeframe can be challenging for the Test Center of Excellence (CoE).

That’s why test automation makes good sense for Test CoEs as they look to accelerate for continuous quality. It lets you perform repetitive tests in short order to support the Agile process. With an open-source, enterprise-ready test platform, it becomes easy for your Test Center of Excellence (CoE) to give Agile developers the extended, automated test coverage they need. They get a single, easy to use, integrated test toolchain for performance, functional and API testing at scale – allowing them to accelerate testing to match the pace of development. What’s more, the same enterprise-ready platform can be used to build out your Test CoE tool chest and performance engineer for continuous quality across your CI/CD pipeline.

But then, how do you address regulatory, data security and encryption concerns when you’re using a cloud-based, open-source test platform? With the right solution, it’s actually very simple to accomplish. In fact, you have multiple options for how and where test data is generated and stored. You can pick the option that best meets your needs today, and easily adapt if your situation changes.

Best Practices for Test CoEs deploying to the Cloud

There are three ways to help you make the most of SaaS-based performance testing under different scenarios:

1. Pure SaaS Testing with Dedicated/Whitelisted IPs

This is the scenario most broadly adopted by businesses today. A SaaS-based test platform hosted by cloud service providers (e.g. AWS, Google and Azure) is used to simulate the actions of millions of virtual users on-demand, from multiple locations around the globe. You manage it all through dedicated and/or whitelisted IPs that protect your work.

Ideal if you need:
• Low-cost infrastructure with ready access to geographically dispersed cloud providers
• Easy to set up and configure to existing IP list (Whitelisted/Dedicated)
• Scalable in minutes for real-time performance measurement of heavy loads
• Rich and detailed reports with drill-down capabilities, insights and analysis

2. Testing with On-Premises Load Generation

For another layer of protection, you can generate test loads behind your own firewall and within your own private network or cloud. A physical or virtual server is installed on-premises, with a Docker-based private agent to generate load traffic. Your agent can listen for and trigger application performance tests across your firewall using the load traffic you generate. You get the same “scale on demand” flexibility found in cloud based solution, but with the protection that your private firewall delivers. …