The cloud-based test automation involves using cloud-based tools to emulate real-world users and environments for testing software functionality. In most cases, cloud providers often offer testing environments that can easily be configured according to the software requirements.
There are various reasons why most people prefer automated software testing to manual testing.
It’s easier to share resources using the cloud-based automated testing approach than manually testing the software.
This is because cloud-based automation tools support virtual collaboration with team members.
You can even leave the execution process running overnight, which is practically impossible with manual testing.
Software automation testing tools make it easier to create repetitive test cases and automate their execution.
On the other hand, test scripts are created by humans, and this takes a lot of time and effort.
Thus, the whole process is often considered time-consuming.
Below are the features of cloud-based test automation and how they affect workflow.
Greater Scalability
Cloud-based test automation supports the ability to scale resources up or down with the changing demands of the testing process.
Test requirements change, and testers must increase or decrease their testing capabilities by scaling the testing process.
Just imagine having limited resources when you are about to release a critical feature or when fixing an annoying bug!
Which one of these will you solve first? You need to understand that these two are significant problems and can lead to many hassles when the number of test environments is limited.
With the cloud-based test automation, testers can spin up the test environments with just a touch of the button and create everything needed to test the existing scenarios.
As a result, the testers have a great testing infrastructure and don’t have to worry about delays, local installation, or hardware limitations.
Faster Releases
Cloud-based automation testing supports robust tools that speed up most software testing processes in the cloud or on-premises.
The number of test environments in cloud-based test automation is higher, which shortens the testing cycles, especially when using the parallel test execution approach.
The feedback loops can be shortened, increasing access to the test environments, and more bugs can be fixed within the specified period.
Thus, you can quickly achieve consistent and quality releases, which provides the end-users with a better experience.
With the help of artificial intelligence, you can automate exploratory testing. And this allows the testers to concentrate on other activities that improve the functionality of your software product.
It’s even easier to monitor insights, discover, fix bugs, and increase the test coverage using the cloud-based test automation approach.
Parallelization
Parallelization is a great feature of cloud-based test automation where testers spin up various pre-configured environments. These test environments mimic the testing parameters of different test scenarios being tested.
This way, different versions of the same software can run on several virtual computers.
Also, the same software product can be run across disparate browsers, devices, and operating systems.
Whenever a test case is completed, the results are sent back, and the virtual computers are spun down with no data from the execution retained.
The benefits of parallelization include speed, reduced testing cost, better coverage, and improved testing practices.
Sequential testing is often time-consuming, and dividing the time allocated by the number of environments in parallel testing is better. With parallelization, the maintenance cost isn’t a huge problem because you can run your test case at high concurrency. This makes the cost per test case significantly lower.
Great Collaboration
Another feature of cloud-based test automation is a great collaboration. It doesn’t matter where each tester is working from. They can work together collectively towards common objectives. Collaboration is even possible in real-time, removing hassles that had been challenging to the team members.
The greater the collaboration, the more access to shared resources at any time of the day without device limitations. This means that the testers can detect bugs and other defects in the software product during the early stages of the software development.
Whenever any team member is required to perform a particular test, they can log in to the cloud server and begin the whole process. This increases the workflow rate within the organization, and you will get faster releases due to great collaboration from the team members.
Hassle-free Disaster Recovery
Cloud-based test automation provides hassle-free disaster recovery. In a normal situation, it’s very costly to build and maintain a physical recovery solution.
It requires a lot of hardware depending on the scale of the test scenarios to be carried out.
With cloud-based test automation, you can fix malfunctions with a single click.
The data required for the disaster recovery process is usually stored on different servers and can be retrieved whenever needed within the shortest time possible.
This means that in the event of a server breakdown, the other servers that are connected will pull a load and keep the test execution running while keeping the whole data intact.
There is also better tracking of historical activities as you can easily store large data sets. This makes the data recovery process easier because you have the entire infrastructure service 24/7 with great security features.