Friday, July 29, 2011

Google Page Speed Service – The death of the Web Performance Optimization consultant?

Fred Beringer of SOASTA posed that question on his blog yesterday.

An interesting question, so being a tester, what did I do? Right, I tested it. It took all of one test for me to come to my conclusion...

NOT WITH RESULTS LIKE THIS!!

Google Page Speed Service Test 
--
Scott Barber
Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
About.me

Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications
Author, Web Load Testing for Dummies
Contributing Author, Beautiful Testing, and How To Reduce the Cost of Testing

"If you can see it in your mind...
     you will find it in your life."

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

CloudTest Lite - A Game Changer in the Performance Tool Market

Yesterday, SOASTA announced their new product, CloudTest Lite (Press Release). It's not common that I get excited about a tool product release, but this is different. This product has the potential to change the market for the better.
Scratch that. I'll be shocked if it doesn't change the market for the better.

Why is that, you ask? Consider the following attributes of CloutTest Lite:
  • It's a fully featured, easy to learn and use, enterprise class, modern, performance testing tool for web & mobile applications
  • All you need to use it is a reasonably modern machine connected to the internet and a web browser.
    • You don't need to buy, install, configure or maintain load generation machines.
    • The "license" is tied to your personal credentials, so you can design, create, execute, and analyze your tests from any machine you want without needing to figure out how to point to the license server, or how to get onto the corporate network from your favorite internet cafe.
    • You can even do much of the design, test enhancement, and analysis entirely off-line.
  • You can simulate up to 100 virtual users any time you want. No more scheduling time on the controller days or weeks in advance guessing the app will be ready for your test. No more having to wait until your next scheduled time to re-run your test when you see something 'wonky' in your data.
  • It's free.
    • Yes, I said free.
    • As in, you never need to pay a dime. Not today, not when the trial expires, not a year from now to continue your maintenance contract.
    • That's right, it is free from now until the sun explodes (or at least until well beyond when anything we're building or planning to build today is long gone and forgotten)
Imagine the implications: