Cloud computing services offer a number of benefits, including the promise of unlimited scalability at a fraction of the cost. But these benefits are lost if service levels can’t be met. IT organizations must ensure that cloud computing providers can meet their performance, availability, security and scalability requirements. And cloud computing providers must ensure that they can deliver service levels as advertised.

What to Test

Cloud computing services should be tested to validate and assure:

• Response time—What should users expect accessing information? At what point does service begin to degrade?
• Bandwidth—How much bandwidth is actually available? What is the impact when under load or attack?
• Connections—How many users can connect at any given time? Are new users able to connect? How fast can new connections be established when existing users are stressing the system?
• Security—Are threats being caught? How much does the system slow down when additional security parameters are implemented?
• VPN performance—How does encryption impact performance? What is the impact when switching between different levels?
• Virtualization performance—How well does the virtual switch and virtual firewall perform? Does an infected virtual machine impact other virtual machines on the same server?

Spirent Solutions

Spirent’s PASS (Performance, Availability, Security and Scalability) methodologies provide a comprehensive approach to testing the cloud when used with the following solutions:

• Spirent Avalanche provides security, attack and performance testing for virtual/cloud infrastructures.
• Spirent Avalanche Virtual tests and measures the performance, availability, security and scalability of virtualized network infrastructure and/or applications deployed in the cloud.
• Spirent Studio Performance ensures your applications and network infrastructure will perform and scale under real-world conditions and loads.
• Spirent Studio Security provides next-gen firewall testing.
• Spirent iTest accelerates system and device testing by automating testing processes.
• Professional Services detect and mitigate problems before you launch a new infrastructure or IT solution.
• Support Services help protect your product and systems to ensure their ongoing integrity.