Figure 1. GigaOm Radar for Evaluating Performance Testing Tools
As we noted in a previous article, the market for performance testing tools is heating up. Why? Because performance testing which is a process that tests software applications under particular loads and provides feedback is now seen as an integral element of a quality-first approach in cloud-native environments. Performance testing is necessary to give management and development staff information on the quality of performance of an IT business solution.
Another influencing factor in the growth of performance testing is the move to shift left in DevOps. Testing can kill innovation and increase the complexity of delivering solutions. So if a test tool is difficult to use, it can become a bottleneck due to the limited number of available skilled testers. And this can mean that teams either skip performance tests or accept a reduction in quality.
IT Imperative: Performance Testing Tools
Inside the GigaOm Key Criteria ReportAny IT leader worth their salt wants to ensure that applications meet their required service levels and that they deliver a positive user experience. Performance testing is the insurance in that scenario. With it, an organization can test how responsive a system is under varying loads and scenarios to provide actionable feedback about the behavior of the system. Performance testing is now a critical part of site reliability engineering (SRE) and the quality-first approach seen as crucial in cloud-native environments.
For businesses that create many custom-based applications, or that make extensive modifications to third-party systems like PegaSystems, Salesforce, and SAP, performance testing is critical. The risk of bugs or unplanned outages caused by application loads is simply unacceptable in these environments.