Network Virtualization - Network Virtualization For Developers and QA Testers

Network Virtualization For Developers and QA Testers

Network virtualization is also a vital component for application development and testing environments. In the pre-production stages of the software development life cycle, network virtualization is the process of recreating network conditions from the production - or real world - environment within the test environment. Network conditions such as latency, limited bandwidth, packet loss, and jitter, are all critical factors that must be taken into account when testing or validating application performance.

A component of Application performance engineering, network virtualization enables connections between applications, services, dependencies and end users to be accurately emulated in the test environment. In the absence of these real-world conditions, testing will yield unreliable results as the effect of the network on the end user experience, as well as on communication with external services, remains unaccounted for. As with services, virtualizing network conditions in the test lab is essential to creating a realistic environment for testing that yields accurate and reliable insight into application behavior.

With the massive global uptake in mobile devices and the rise of cloud computing, the effect of the network has become even more pronounced since conditions across the “last mile” affect performance more than other factors, and mobile conditions in particular are intrinsically dynamic. Therefore, incorporating network virtualization is particularly crucial when any mobile or cloud component is part of the scenario.