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12.11.2012
This is part one of a two part paper on the testing and monitoring of cloud-based applications. While the general principles are similar to those used for more traditional software, there are significant differences caused by the tendency of cloud-based applications to increase and reduce their instances.
Any cloud-based application worth its name would naturally come with a full set of monitoring tools. After all, what use is an e-commerce application that attracts clients, helps them make selections and then fails at a critical juncture? In the traditional web server environment, administrators would create elaborate checklists and track the application performance at its critical points. The same is required to be done in the cloud environment but there are a few important differences.
To begin with, the entire cloud infrastructure is not within your grasp as would be the case with traditionally hosted infrastructure. This imposes a few limitations. You are restricted to the diagnostic tools that the cloud service provider gives you (they can range from basic to comprehensive depending on what you have hired). Alternatively, you can create another application that has some privileges over your main application and runs a diagnostic program in the background. This diagnostic application works as a user and checks to see that all functions that a user would use are available and return sensible values.
A key issue is the large numbers of virtual machines that can be created and destroyed in the course of a working day. Your diagnostic tools have to cater to this changing number and keep a health check on each. This complicates the scenario somewhat (and that is an understatement).
New diagnostic software is able to monitor many more parts of the software than was possible earlier. Much better checking algorithms mean that there are fewer “false positives”. Here are a few of the testing methodologies in widespread use –
Direct testing – this is the simplest method where the checking tools mimic a real user. Standard parameters are supplied to the software as a user response and standard answers are expected. Any variation is obviously cause for further checking. In addition to the returned values, the software also monitors the time taken to produce a response. While there can be variations, any large variations are a cause for concern and must be investigated.
Back end processes – some diagnostic software check out the backend processes. They will examine the database and send test queries to the database server to see its response and performance.
Network and other infrastructure – the delivery infrastructure needs to be checked out regularly. This means the various routers, switches and other hardware including the DNS servers etc. Testing on these lines also includes the firewalls and other gateways. A glitch in any of these could mean that the application would be up and running but the end user would still not get her work done. The idea behind such testing being to ensure that while the cloud service is available, the various security and networking devices do not interfere with the delivery of the service.
Monitor Big Data Clusters – if your application uses big data, then your diagnostics have to be able to check out your Hadoop clusters to ensure that the processing is going on as desired. Failure of components of the cluster will degrade application performance very sharply.
Modern diagnostics for cloud applications handle this very fluid situation quite competently. The results are presented graphically in a very easy to understand manner. All of this is making for more robust cloud-based applications.
A special challenge is posed by mobile users. If the diagnostic results are to be seen by a user using her smartphone – say, the CIO checking out the services while in a meeting – then the dashboards have to be constructed in a way that the smartphone can handle. This means prioritizing of the data to be displayed rather than merely shrinking the display. This calls for special skills – GMO Cloud for instance, provides additional monitoring services for thorough checking of systems and applications installed within it.
In the second part of this paper, we will look for how test results are interpreted and analyzed.
Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Guest Author:
Sanjay Srivastava has been active in computing infrastructure and has participated in major projects on cloud computing, networking, VoIP and in creation of applications running over distributed databases. Due to a military background, his focus has always been on stability and availability of infrastructure. Sanjay was the Director of Information Technology in a major enterprise and managed the transition from legacy software to fully networked operations using private cloud infrastructure. He now writes extensively on cloud computing and networking and is about to move to his farm in Central India where he plans to use cloud computing and modern technology to improve the lives of rural folk in India.
12.10.2012
Cloud computing has been the buzzword in the world of Information Technology for quite some time and it is likely to retain that status in the coming years as well. Cloud computing has been helping business enterprises deliver services faster and less costly as compared to all existing delivery models.
Small and medium business enterprises have in fact grown substantially in their outlook towards technology thanks to the implementation of cloud computing in their core business models. It has brought down infrastructure costs like no other technology has done before, not to mention the ease (remote) access features that have become existent in critical business models thanks to this unique technology. The future looks even more promising than the current scenario. The world as we know always strives for more and it is an assured fact that we would be seeing many more implementations of cloud computing in as many discrete operational areas as possible. Let us look at what could be the state of cloud computing in the upcoming future – particulary, the year 2013.
Collaboration of Private as well as Public cloud could be the biggest trend that we could witness in 2013 as enterprises are looking for new ways to help their customers benefit from the best of both worlds. A hybrid cloud strategy that provides them with the functionality and reliability of both is thus a very interesting prospect.
Speed could be a decisive factor for next generation cloud computing technologies. Depending upon network bandwidth and speed, cloud based services could be deployed at rates never before imagined. The benefit will be for end customers who rely on bottom line services that are cloud-based. They would get speedy service rendering and hence could save them time as well as costs if we take into account charges for service time.
Integration of mobile and cloud computing could become even stronger with mobile applications calling out to back end services resting on cloud-based platforms and hence seamless service delivery happens no matter wherever you are on the planet.
It is high time people let go of the myths in security regarding cloud computing. 2013 may very well see the end of such myths as cloud delivery platforms have become more secure than ever before with state of the art security firewalls, physical protection and security of data centers hosting these cloud platforms and much more.
Nothing makes your business more portable than cloud computing. It would be possible to port your data and applications to whichever part of the world you move to and all you need would be a computer connected to the internet. Backup and recovery measures might be fully loaded onto cloud based platforms thanks to the convenience offered by it; case in point, GMO Cloud’s add-on services on top of their IaaS offering.
Software development companies would be stressing on the importance of cloud like never before. They can get teams of engineers to work together from every nook and corner of the globe and this kind of collaboration would help develop software components quickly and efficiently.
Bring your own device or BYOD is going to be the talk of the town in 2013. We are seeing a paradigm shift in work culture where the freedom and power of IT are actually given to users via a web based interface. No longer is their demand for complex hardware for working on complex software products.
Open source cloud computing platforms may see a whole new dimension of demands as they have demonstrated their ability to rival proprietary competitor platforms and has also shown the flexibility it has with regard to supporting a wide plethora of services and not to mention the huge support it offers to anyone using it courtesy of the open source tag it has.
As far as service delivery is concerned, Software-as-a-Service models would continue to improve and provide faster and less expensive user experiences via simpler interfaces. The number of platforms that can be used to access software as a service would increase with even smartphones embracing cloud based applications as we mentioned earlier.
In all 2013 as well as the imminent future after it looks more exciting than ever before for cloud computing and it is indeed going to be a more fruitful venture for business enterprises and services relying on it.
Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Guest Author:
Mandira Srivastava is a fulltime freelance writer who specializes in technology, health and fitness, politics, and financial writing. Equipped with degree of mass communication and having worked for both private and corporate clients, I have experience meeting a wide range of writing requirements and styles.