Performance Testing For Modern, Cloud-Based Apps

Performance testing has seen newer challenges in the cloud environment. Most businesses on restricted budgets find that online promotion or a strong online presence can help them. Further, many users prefer conducting their business online, making the case for cloud-enabled applications stronger. However, technology, including cloud technology, is dynamic and ever-changing. This presents newer grounds to cover, for performance testing methods as well. What worked well some months ago may not be adequate right now.

When it comes to performance testing solutions, the one element that comes to mind immediately would be real-time testing. But application monitoring needs to go beyond only real time testing, and bridge development and deployment, while keeping a sharp eye on its real-time performance. In cloud-based apps especially, the important of constant monitoring cannot be overlooked.

Certain elements are common to most application and performance testing.

Performance testing for cloud-based apps

Cloud-enabled applications have many advantages, such as helping to reduce operational costs. A small or mid-sized business firm can also successfully manage a business without needing to first make heavy investments in manpower or infrastructure in-house. Cloud based apps and resources use the cloud itself as a storing place, and the company that is harnessing it. Thus, testing for performance of cloud-based apps does not begin and end in the company's IT room. It is not dependent on the company that is using cloud technology. Instead, cloud-based applications will be affected by not just their platforms and environments, but also the different and rapidly changing environment within the cloud itself. Testing solutions for the performance of cloud based apps will need to take this into consideration.

Ensuring constant monitoring

Perhaps the one surefire method of ensuring strong performance of cloud-based apps is constant monitoring and hence testing and review methods too may need some modification. As part of performance testing of cloud-based apps, their ability to match expectations and requirements can be reviewed right from development up to deployment.

Updated performance testing solutions

Most cloud-based application monitoring is a service. If you have a vendor providing you services, you can ensure that your performance testing is in sync with the latest software changes and is keeping pace with the application updates. Your testing solutions could include a multi-pronged approach where the application is not tested in isolation.

Comprehensive performance testing

Your cloud-based application is dependent on its environment as well. Ideally, your application monitoring solution should take into account the working environment and the platform it is working on. Most performance testing should also reveal or detect discrepancies before they become apparent. For small or mid-sized businesses that operate through cloud-based applications mostly, sound performance monitoring and thorough and consistent application testing is indispensable.

About the Author:

Tevron develops and delivers Application Monitoring Solutions, Service Level Agreement, Performance Testing, and End to End Performance monitoring solutions available globally. Tevron has also successfully delivered enterprise Application Monitoring Solutions and Testing solutions to support every IT enterprise application to hundreds of customers across the globe. Tevron's solutions designed to support diverse environments, business processes and applications with a service oriented management.

Analyzing Application Monitoring

If you were to analyze and dissect application monitoring, you would see that there really is no single answer to the question about what influences it. When undertaking monitoring, it is important to remember that most applications do not work in isolation. There is an interdependent maze that most applications operate within. This maze includes other applications as well as the software platform used.

Application monitoring may need to take into consideration the hardware details of the system as well. Factors such as hardware performance, capacity and speed can affect application performance. Further, if the platform on which the application runs, develops a problem, application monitoring alone may not be able to help.

Application monitoring, thus, is not just about the state of the application; it is equally about optimal performance. Optimized performance is not just about the functioning of a single application, it is about how all the different elements related to an application interact and engage to finally enable the application to perform.

Application monitoring may need to go as in-depth as the levels of coding. At times, comprehensive application monitoring may take into account the kind of coding undertaken in writing the application. Apart from coding, application performance monitoring will also take into account the loads that the application will handle. Load testing is a significant aspect of comprehensive application monitoring.

As networked environments grow in complexity, workloads are increasing at an unprecedented rate. The widespread adoption of different devices such as smart phones and other handheld communication devices is also aiding in increased virtualization. As a result, application monitoring now has greater grounds to cover.

When undertaking monitoring, it is worthwhile taking everything that touches the application into consideration.

Monitoring for Epic Application Performance

Epic application performance monitoring needs to take into account the large sizes of databases that the application covers. Because Epic applications cover the medical and healthcare industry, performance testing solutions need to include areas such as Practice Management, Hospital Billing, Ambulatory and Inpatient EMR, etc. Epic also covers departments and ancillaries, and takes care of interoperability matters and the need for connecting affiliates.

As agencies involved in healthcare, including hospitals, medical groups and integrated healthcare organizations move towards adopting Epic applications, the need for adequate testing solutions is only going to increase. Further, because of the nature of industry that Epic applications serve, their effective performance is fundamental to the agencies using them. Services such as emergency rooms cannot afford to have applications that are not up and running when needed.

Epic consists of large databases that cover clinical as well as revenue functions for healthcare organizations. Epic performance needs to take into account not only healthcare concerns such as patient details, but also aspects such as system health, compliance with SLA, real user experience, etc. Performance monitoring for Epic applications also takes into account the environments.

Epic applications improve the productivity of physicians by helping to simplify the practice, including aspects of patient engagement. Eventually, effective Epic application performance results in better care delivery. The applications within this system take care of more than 100 specialties, all designed to make healthcare simpler with the use of pre-built content on reports, documents, order sets, etc. This makes for faster and effective care-giving, including for chronic care cases. For healthcare providers, the performance of their Epic applications must never flag, particularly since the system supports some critical areas within medical care, resulting in measurable increase in quality of care provided.