Hi,
In this short blog, I will try to give a small taste of the mobile testing cloud leading solutions these days (I am sure that there are many more, but these are the one i ran across and can point you to).
When talking about mobile testing, we need to understand that there are plenty of complexities which mobile testing manager need to deal with.
Few examples:
– Plenty of mobile handsets (Each few weeks/months new phones show up) – support of existing applications/solutions/services on new handsets is a challenge (e.g.: A working and deployed app which runs ok on Samsung Galaxy SII – need to be tested on the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S III)
– Testing different locales on different operators, gaining high network’s coverage
– porting activities testing (during mature development life cycle)
– expensive logistics in acquiring many devices which will serve R&D teams
The above are just few examples of difficulties around mobile testing which the cloud based solutions provide a solution for.
Testing in the cloud saves money for the companies and prevent them for acquiring expensive handsets for rather short testing cycles. The cloud provides coverage in various operators across the world, and quick TTM.
Few of the leading tools which are out there are listed below:
– PerfectoMobile – “Mobile Cloud Interactive” –> A cloud based solution which provides access to hundreds of real handsets which are spread across the world with real SIM inside connected to real operators (Vodafone, Verizon etc.)
The solution is based on a device rack (DDM) which can hold up to 4 different/similar devices which are connected to a server, and against each of their screen there is a video camera pointed and provide liver streaming (through web browser) of whatever is being performed/displayed on the handset. The flow of each handset is captured and saved as a video file (in FLV format) allowing the testers/developers an easy way to reproduce and report bugs etc.
On top of the above cloud service which has a pricing model (pay by the hour of use) the company also provide an automation robust solution (which i will report in future blog/s) which plugs in to commonly used automation solutions (such as HP QTP). For more info on the Mobile Cloud solution – http://www.perfectomobile.com/portal/cms/services/web_access_to_real_handsets.html
– KeyNote Device anywhere – “Test Center Enterprise Interactive” – In a similar model as stated above in PerfectoMobile, we have the older solution in the market which provides as well device remote access in a cloud based solution across the world (different pricing model). This solution requires user registration and a windows based utility download from which one can access the mobile cloud, run tests on “ordered” handsets, and get detailed reports.
The above as mentioned earlier, provides increased coverage on more devices, networks and locales and increases the level of confidence in the quality of the vendors deliverables.
http://www.keynotedeviceanywhere.com/mobile-application-enterprise-testing.html
– SeeTest by Experitest – Company which provides unique test automation solution which plugs into various IDE’s (Jsystem, QTP and more), and also in a unique model provides a local mobile cloud in the company home network. A company who owns its devices and wants to run existing and/or new test plans on them in one single run from any PC in the company – he can get remote connectivity to each of the handsets connected via USB (or USB Hub) to any of the machines in the network and launch the test scripts (Great solution when trying to build continuous integration solution inside a company R&D)
More details: http://experitest.com/cloud/
– Last – We have SOASTA CloudTest solution – This is a load/performance testing solution within a cloud based product.
The company holds access to thousands of PC”s which can be configured to access simultaneously to any web url/server and introduce load. See a recent press release which introduces the cooperation of SOASTA and HP around load testing:
“Cloud-based test service delivers automated performance testing across 47 locations with access to over 350,000 servers and 17 different APIs” ….. http://www.soasta.com/company/news/press-releases/soasta-brings-cloudtest-to-hp-cloud-services/
The mobile test automation which is also provided by the company allows a tester a unthethered agent to be installed on his target device from which he can test against the SOASTA IDE his application (through WiFi/3G connection).
For more information on these solutions: http://www.soasta.com/?gclid=CL72odjo_a8CFQpd3wodNFfMUw
Hope you find these high level information useful.
For further details contact me at Eran.Kinsbrunner@gmail.com
Regards,
Eran Kinsbruner
Continuous Testing and DevOps Blog 