The last few years have witnessed an insistent acceptance of new method named ‘Containers’ as organizations wish to deal with disruption at a faster pace. Containers have been around in the IT world for over a decade now, but the arrival of Docker made them more popular as it re-invented containers by adding a robust platform, integrated management tools, and code registry.

Contents 1. What are ‘Containers’ and why do we need them? 2. Containers and DevOps: What’s the connection? 3. Conclusion

What are ‘Containers’ and why do we need them?

Containers are the answer to the common problems faced by software to run consistently while moving from one computing environment to the other. This could be from a developer’s system to a test environment, or from a physical machine in the data center into a virtual machine in the cloud. Containers have become an integral part of the application development space, particularly in cloud computing. This is mainly because portability has been the biggest hitch in this space and given the proprietary nature of these public clouds, this method helps in abstracting applications into a virtual container that can be moved from one cloud to another.

The architecture of containers is an added advantage as it contains a standard method to divide applications into dispersed objects or also known as containers. This flexible approach offers more advantages around workload management and also offers the ability to make defect-tolerant systems. Containerizing the application platform can help in abstracting away the differences in the OS distribution. Another great benefit of containers is ‘modularity’ i.e., rather than running an entire application inside the container; the application can be split into different modules.

Containers and DevOps: What’s the connection?

You might have heard ‘DevOps’ and ‘Containers’ in the same sentence quite often Though, they are different concepts, but the effectiveness of containers makes it easier to enable DevOps workflows. Though DevOps is not tied to any particular technology; it can be implemented through any tool, it is convenient to implement DevOps with the help of containers.

-Containers have become an easy solution for the DevOps teams as it makes collaborating with various teams such as development, testing, and operation easier and convenient.

-Containers are able to support multiple frameworks, and it becomes easier to switch between different programming frameworks in DevOps.

-Rolling out application updates on a streamlined basis is required for a continuous delivery of software. When the application is distributed into multiple microservices, each one hosted in a separate container, you are able to update one part of the application by restarting the container without barging in the rest of the app.

While both containers and DevOps are helping improve software quality, the focus on automation and continuous delivery have been leading to various quality issues. Developers are often challenged with log files that are scattered in a variety of isolated containers each with its own log system dependencies. Continuous testing should be implemented to allow development teams to detect problems early on. If a continuous testing approach is not followed, fixing of errors will take much longer. TestingXperts’ intelligent continuous testing platform Tx-Automate has been enabling end-to-end automation of applications to enhance the quality of the software and increase speed to market. Connect with our Test Advisorsy services and allow us to help you build a defect-free and quality software/ application.

The post Containerization: Accelerate DevOps Adoption using Containers first appeared on TestingXperts.

Our current software development and testing landscape require the elimination of each and every bottleneck present. If there is something along the regular development lifecycle that can be tweaked and moved for achieving greater quality and speed, it is a no-brainer to make that move. If you are looking to remove all these constraints, service virtualization should be your choice in 2017. With service virtualization, both developers and testers can create simulated instances of production environments to develop and test.

Contents 1. What is Service Virtualization? 2. Importance of creating Virtual Service Environments (VSEs) for the test environments 3. Challenges faced by virtual test environment 4. Considering virtual test environments as objects in your CI/ CD pipeline 5. Advantages of containerized test environments 6. Key benefits that Service Virtualization brings

Being part of a team that is following DevOps or Agile principles, delivering applications and updates as rapidly as possible becomes one of your essential tenets. Service virtualization provides teams with the option of testing different aspects of an application early, without compromising on the quality.

What is Service Virtualization?

Service virtualization is the process of emulating the performance of selected components within an application to enable end-to-end testing of the application. It provides testing teams with the application development and delivery ecosystem with a sequence of API test capabilities. Service virtualization can be used to create realistic simulations of needs that are not available. Service virtualization lets the teams to start testing early, more competently and continuously.

With the help of service virtualization, it is easier to replace unavailable dependencies with easily configurable and accessible virtual assets. Application development teams can use these virtual services to conduct integration testing earlier in the development process. Virtualized test assets appear and act real but can be duplicated and made available at times during the unavailability of real assets with the testing team. Virtualizing the test assets can enable your organization to create robust test frameworks that can provide comprehensive test coverage while keeping the costs low.

Importance of creating Virtual Service Environments (VSEs) for the test environments

To reach the ultimate goal of testing enterprise applications, organizations must build their own test environments by manually replicating the components they need to interact with. Traditional testing tools do not have the proper functionality to test these applications on a collaborative basis thoroughly. Virtual Service Environments provide multiple teams to have a realistic technique to simulate the test of an application. Virtual environments also help in reducing the hardware and installation costs.

Challenges faced by virtual test environment

Challenges offered by constrained access to dependencies during the development and testing becomes stronger when organizations move towards continuous delivery. The absence of suitable test environments for your dependencies can become a huge barrier when you want to build, test and deploy your software on demand without any help from real testers. Some of the key challenges faced by virtual test environments are listed below:

• Significant Increase in Testing cost

• Unstable and Late Delivery of environment

• Lack of Consistency

Considering virtual test environments as objects in your CI/ CD pipeline

It is a huge step to run your virtual test environments at some server in your network. However, service virtualization is the next step, as it serves as an enabler for continuous delivery. In this process, virtual assets are considered as artifacts that can be created, used, and destroyed at your convenience.

The most effective way to treat your test environments as continuous delivery objects is by containerizing them. Containerizing can be done by using various platforms, for example, Docker. With the help of these platforms, you can create an image that contains your service virtualization engine, data sources that contain the necessary test data, and all virtual assets to emulate the required behavior.

Advantages of containerized test environments

There are several compelling advantages for development and testing activities that can be brought by containerized test environments in your continuous delivery process:

• Test environments can be rolled on demand, so there is no need for waiting up until that dependency you need is accessible and configured like you want it to be.

• There is zero need for you to worry about resetting the test environment to its original state after testing is completed. You need to throw the test environment away and spin up a new instance ready for your next test run.

• Having the virtual test environment at your service every time makes it easier to analyze and reproduce bugs.

Key benefits that Service Virtualization brings

• Rapidly creates situations and patterns that emulate the expected activities There are various instances where glitches are felt while working on connected components within a system. Service virtualization helps in minimizing these glitches by virtually providing assets and resources. For example, by using graphical interface, you can create a virtual asset that produces the required behavior for developments and testing tasks.

• Provide common access to emerging assets There is a need for virtual assets to various team members or any team member who is located universally. Service virtualization expedites a scenario where the assets are available for everyone, on-demand and at a given point of time.

• Cost Savings By leveraging service virtualization, you can immensely save costs in the development and testing cycle.

TestingXperts is an expert in testing a plethora of domains for various organizations while adopting Agile and DevOps testing approach in different stages in the development cycle. We have been closely working with enterprises to provide Service Virtualization and testing solutions and effectively emulate virtual assets to automate integration, regression, and performance testing. Connect with us to know more about our testing services and bring speed and quality for your releases.

The post The Crucial Role of Service Virtualization for Continuous Delivery first appeared on TestingXperts.