Stress testing a Web application has always been a very expensive test to do in a traditional lab environment. Yet the cost of having a Web site crash is also becoming very expensive to companies who rely on their Web site as a marketing and distribution arm of their business model. Companies such as Hallmark.com, Genentech, and Proctor & Gamble have discovered Cloud Testing as an affordable and scalable alternative to traditional stress testing. For a few thousand dollars huge stress tests can be acheived in as little as one hour. A major media site recently used SOASTA CloudTest and Amazon EC2 to test their music download site by simulating over 500,000 concurrent virtual users downloading songs. To the customer, the test created a treasure trove of application and network analytics that will eventually establish a much higher level of reliability to their site. The thought that you could affordably simulate that type of load just a few years ago was unheard of. Cloud Testing is changing how we test our Web sites forever.

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