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| Load Testing » Features & benefits |
| Our Load Testing service provides: |
- Load testing under your control
We enable you simulate real user activity against your website, on demand, to your own specification. You identify the testing that you want to carry out to meet your own needs. From testing to reporting, you define and execute your requirements to maximise improvements in your online investment.
- Unlimited load testing
During the load testing period you can execute as many load tests as you want to, up to your chosen number of concurrent users. There is no maximum number of test runs and no minimum time between tests. This means that you are able to achieve maximum return on your investment in load testing.
- No hardware or software requirement
Load testing often requires a dedicated test infrastructure and licensed software. This takes time and significant resources to set up and install, which may not be available or justified. Site Confidence’s Load Testing solves all of these issues by hosting the capability externally. There are no software licensing requirements – we simply set you up with an account and you are ready to start testing.
This also means that you can load test up to exceptional levels (for example in readiness for a sale or promotion) without investing in infrequently used hardware or software.
- Test from where you want to
Site Confidence’s Load testing is external and accessed via a web portal. This means that you can run the tests from the office, your home or wherever you want to. This feature is particularly useful if you are testing out of hours, or need to run tests at short notice. It also means that results can be easily accessed by individuals at multiple locations simultaneously, ironing out issues often encountered with multi-site projects.
- Scripting done for you
Creating the scripts for a load test is a time consuming process and often requires specialist knowledge. Site Confidence takes your business processes and turns them into scripts for you, for use during the load test.
Scripts can be as simple or as complex as you like, for example to reflect whether you just want your users to browse your site, or create a basket and purchase products.
- Script configurability
Although we create the scripts for you, you are still able to make changes yourself. The changes you are able to make include speed of download (broadband or dial-up speed), expected phrase (the text searched for on the page to ensure it has loaded correctly), download threshold and think time. If more complex changes are required then these will be done for you.
- Simple load testing Scenarios
When setting up a load test a Scenario Design wizard guides you through the process, helping you to make the necessary choices in designing your Scenario. This means that as soon as you know what you want to load test you can get started, without extensive training or product familiarisation. The wizard enables you to set up a relatively simple Scenario very quickly – exactly what you need if your load testing is urgent.
- Complex load testing Scenarios
As your load testing advances so will the requirements of what it is that you are trying to test. For this reason Site Confidence has made the Scenarios highly configurable; you are able to test exactly what you want to, in the manner that you want to.
This might include running different scripts in similar ways but in different proportions, or running the same script but in different ways, or any combination of these. You are able to do all of this and more by either amending a Scenario created in the Scenario wizard or by creating a new Scenario manually.
- Monitor the test in real time
When you’re running a test it is critical that you understand how your site is performing.
Is the site responding correctly or are errors being returned? If the site is responding correctly then how quickly is it responding? If errors are being returned then what are they and do they correspond with behaviour you are observing?
Our Load Testing allows you to do all of this whilst the test is still running. This enables a rapid test-tune cycle – if you discover a problem mid-way through a test then you can fix it and re-run the test immediately to determine how successful the change has been.
Be assured you have the facility to stop a test at any time if you decide that it is not going to plan; being able to do this is essential if problems are encountered.
- Result breakdown
Our results are extremely detailed but they also allow you to just view the results that are important to you. This means that you can examine the results at a test level, individual script level or specific step level, allowing you to differentiate between general trends, issues affecting areas of your site and problems with specific actions on your site – for example logging in or registration.
- Direct access to results
There is no delay between running a load test and having access to the results – they are available in real time whilst running a test and a complete set of the results are available as soon as a test completes. This means that you have access to the results when it matters to you.
- Result reporting
The results are perhaps the most important part of a load test – after all it is the results which tell you how your site behaved during the test. It is for this reason we have made our results detailed, reporting on the measurements that you need to assess the performance of your site and to make improvements to it. However it is also extremely easy to use, which is important if you are to get maximum value from it.
- Results drill down
A useful feature in a number of reports is the ability to choose the component you wish to compare, i.e. DNS, Connect, Data Start, Content Download, in addition to the Total Download Speed. This will help you get a better view of what element may be responsible for the speed of particular steps, i.e. DNS resolution, network connectivity, or server response time.
- Results comparison
Using our Load Testing it is simple to compare the results of two different test runs of the same Scenario. This makes it easy to directly compare a ‘before’ and ‘after’, for example if improvements have been made to a specific step in the site which may have been performing badly.
Many users find this facility invaluable, particularly when trying to illustrate the benefits of load testing and the potential improvements which can be made as a result of carrying it out.
- Archived results
After you have completed your load testing you can select the results that you want to archive. These will be available to you for future reference (even if you carry out no further load testing).
- Future load testing
A combination of two features makes our Load Testing particularly suited to repeated usage. You are able to archive results to view at any point in the future. Combine this with the results comparison facility and it means that you can compare the performance of your site, from one testing phase to another, even with significant periods of time between them.
This means that you can set a performance benchmark for your site, and test against this to ensure that performance does not deteriorate over time.
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| Did you know? |
PC's outsell televisions!
It took 13 years for television to reach 50 million users - it took the Internet less than 4 years!
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