DevOps is all about efficiency and automation—streamlining development and deployment. In order to deliver quality code quickly a culture of continuity is required—including continuous testing. BlazeMeter provides organizations with a platform for continuous performance testing in a DevOps environment.
BlazeMeter claims to be a more affordable—and in some ways more powerful—performance testing platform than HP LoadRunner. The platform isn’t completely unique. It is harnesses and repackages the features and capabilities of JMeter similar to the way that the very popular code repository GitHub is built on the open source Git project.
Open source projects are a very effective engine for creating tools and applications organizations need. The collaborative, crowd-sourced nature of open source projects leads to a solution that is more likely to appeal to a broad consensus. Where open source tools often fall short is in polish and support. Contributors are primarily focused on features and capabilities that impact the tool or platform itself. Organizations, however, also want the metrics and reporting generally provided by an independent software vendor (ISV) as well as the peace of mind of knowing where to turn for support.
That’s where a company like BlazeMeter shifts the value proposition and makes the open source tool better…for a fee. I’m not suggesting there is anything wrong with that. As I noted above, many organizations crave or demand a solution like BlazeMeter rather than the open source tool it’s built on because they need additional features and support.
I spoke with BlazeMeter Chief Evangelist Ophir Prusak about new features and capabilities introduced recently by BlazeMeter. Last week the company launched a new suite of features aimed specifically at test automation for a DevOps environment. The key features include KPI (Key Performance Indicators) Trends, which automatically display graphics of KPIs for easy tracking and troubleshooting; password-free Organizations and Projects folders, allowing DevOps teams to effectively collaborate and execute tests; a Single Sign-On, facilitating quick third party access and authentication; and an improved On Premise Load Generator with newer Docker-based technology, providing increased reliability and a simpler installation process.
Prusak and I spoke about the continuous continuousness of DevOps. We also talked about the blurred line between continuous testing and continuous monitoring. While there are products and services out there that claim to fall under one heading or the other the reality is that continuous monitoring is essentially a form of continuous testing. In that same vein continuous testing—by the very nature of being continuous—also provides organizations with persistent feedback that would alert admins and developers if an issue were present.
In a DevOps world the traditional role of QA shifts down to the DevOps engineers and developers themselves. BlazeMeter integrates with most existing development lifecycle tools and processes so it can work seamlessly.
BlazeMeter takes the power of JMeter and packages it up with comprehensive metrics and reporting as well as enterprise-grade support. Organizations that are striving to develop and deploy code more efficiently should check out JMeter—and then take a look at what BlazeMeter brings to the table to determine if the investment makes sense.
