Gone are the days when buggy software applications would continue to prevail, and publishers would continue to have a chance to redeem their worth with an emergency patch. Today, challenges are dominant in the form of user expectations and asphyxiating competition from counterparts.
These days, it’s mandatory that companies pay equal attention (if not money) to test and fix bugs as they invest towards the development effort – all the while (or before) the app, software or a game makes its way to a major release.
The process, of course, invariably increases the overall cost of the project. But, if there is a problem imminent then a solution needs to be found, and in the case of a software/game proceeding to a commercial release, then the solution should be rendered in time before the release.
Here, the pursuit of the solution may lead us to cloud computing, which enables the users to enjoy a web-environment on-the-move! Here, testers can easily deploy, automate and test their applications and bring down the overall cost of a project under development.
In this process, the app/game title can be accessed and tested through a web interface via a secure medium.
Different Platforms, One Purpose
To reduce the testing cost significantly, shared or public clouds are already a popular option. In this case, the result of the testing effort can be shared publicly. Users who are not required to be explained about the location of the infrastructure or development site can start testing the applications by using the devices. This is a novel concept that enables the companies to get their applications tested by many people all at a single point in time. A comparatively cheaper means to engage a broad range of users/testers can help development companies to make the most of this facility and get the best results within a quicker time-frame.
Some companies, which can afford, can have their private cloud. Using the private clouds, the software/app or game developers and the specialists offering software or game testing services can make the information stay within the team or a designated list of individuals.
The third interesting concept is a hybrid cloud, which is a blend of both private and public cloud and segregated on the need and functioning of an app/game title.
Though this gives multiple options to users, here, game developers/publishers have to keep track of more than one cloud security platforms.
Whatever the platform may be, it is vital to ensure that development companies – while arranging for the cloud towards testing or regular game-play – needs to live up to the expectations of their targeted audience.
Cloud, Offered As Service:
These days, game developers (as well as users) can choose between various cloud-based services accessible through the Internet. One of the most common and used services is SaaS (Software-As-A-Service), where users can run their program in a cloud, while cloud vendors manage the whole process. This service has been proving highly beneficial for all those who want to access a single software service. An increasing count of users can be added without doling out extra fees towards vendors like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail Facebook, etc. or any online banking system.
The second most popular cloud platform is PaaS (Platform-As-A-Service), as a user, you need to manage data and application while the cloud vendor will manage everything else. This offers an excellent option to all those who have limited resources and platforms.
The last one is IaaS (Infrastructure-As-A-Service) where users manage applications, data, and operating system, while cloud service provider takes care of servers, virtualization, storage, and networking.
Article by,
Laxmikant B. Thipse
Founder & CEO
GameCloud Technologies Pvt Ltd
