Following a successful beta with over 1,000 participant companies, Testuff launches its on-demand software test management tool. Aside from the standard features for test stuff management, Testuff offers an intuitive interface, bug tracker integration, and test video recording, all at an affordable price.
Why another test management tool in a market flooded with solutions? The founders of Testuff were dissatisfied with the existing products out there. They were too expensive, too big, too complicated, and required high maintenance. Testuff was born to provide a better solution to a neglected audience: small companies that didn't wish to spend thousands of dollars on test management.
A lot of thought and effort has been put to make Testuff simple, intuitive, and fun to use. By deliberately going desktop in a web age, Testuff achieves a very smooth look and feel that's rare amongst web apps. Accordingly, users report they get fully working with it within an hour.
Integration with the existing work environment is also important for Testuff. Development teams usually install and use a bug tracker before any QA personnel is hired. Therefore, Testuff isn't bundled with a built-in bug tracker like most tools. Instead it integrates with the existing bug tracker by exporting all defects to it.
One of the innovations Testuff offers is built-in test video recording. When executing a manual test one can record the screen, mouse and keyboard. The video is then included in exported defects so that the dev team may easily see bugs recreated in front of their eyes, not able to use the "works for me" excuse any more.
What is the Testuff vision? Arik Aharoni, CEO and founder, tells us: "Most of our effort when building Testuff went into molding it to fit the hand and mind of the QA. The playful UI, video recording, integration with bug trackers and every other feature in Testuff are there to make testers' lives easier."
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Spirent Launches TestCenter Fibre Channel
Spirent Communications plc , a global provider of performance analysis and service management solutions, today announced the launch of Spirent TestCenter(TM) Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Solution, the industry's first test product to validate the performance characteristics of FCoE systems, an emerging technology for enterprise data center networks. A demonstration of this FCoE solution is being showcased at the Spirent Proof of Concept (SPoC) Labs and Collaboration Centers (http://www.spirent.com/go/spoclab) in Beijing, London and Sunnyvale.
FCoE is a proposed industry standard designed to extend data connectivity in addressing current and future business requirements. FCoE maintains existing management paradigm and tools for storage and will serve as a bridge between storage networking and other next-generation data center networks. Initially, FCoE offers SAN and systems administrators the benefit of being able to reduce the number of physical network interfaces in the server, which reduces costs and simplifies management. FCoE utilizes the mission-critical characteristics of Fibre Channel technology and works with existing infrastructure and applications.
The Spirent TestCenter FCoE solution helps assess the interaction of storage and data center traffic over a common interface. Built on Spirent's Fibre Channel hardware and software expertise, the introduction of its FCoE solution demonstrates the company's market leadership and commitment to advancing the development and deployment of the latest technologies. By leveraging its extensive expertise in the Fibre Channel and Ethernet marketplaces, Spirent delivers the most complete product of its kind with the ability to support Layer 2-7 network performance testing with a broad platform specifically designed for multi-play networks and multi-device technologies.
"Brocade is a pioneer who helped create the SAN industry and customers are now turning to us as a strategic and trusted vendor. Specifically, they are asking us to help them evolve their data centers with new technologies in mind while continuing to enjoy the benefits of the most innovative, high-performance data center fabric technologies available today," said Marty Lans, senior director in the Data Center Infrastructure Division at Brocade. "With the only product capable of pre-testing the performance and interoperability of the FCoE protocol for storage networks, working with Spirent will help ensure that our FCoE solutions will maintain industry-leading latency and loss behaviors and maintain Fibre Channel-like integrity of data connectivity"
"Testing is becoming a strategic imperative for our customers, especially as they consider developing technologies such as FCoE," said Tim Jefferson, general manager for Spirent TestCenter at Spirent Communications. "Spirent is in a unique position to serve this market since we are able extended our knowledge of Fibre Channel and Ethernet testing, and our expertise in the 10-Gigabit arena to develop the most comprehensive solution for testing a superior breed of storage network and data center solutions."
Test engineers now have the ability to analyze a number of critical occurrences including the encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel frame into an Ethernet frame, the emergence of Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) to help ensure lossless fabric, and the effect of replacing a Fibre Channel link with MAC addresses in CEE environments. Spirent TestCenter FCoE provides support for FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP), a control plane protocol, and Priority Flow Control (PFC), the advanced quality of service protocol for Ethernet. Ultimately, users of Spirent's FCoE solution can easily understand latency issues as well as the impact of packets which are dropped and scenarios such as loss of power.
FCoE is a proposed industry standard designed to extend data connectivity in addressing current and future business requirements. FCoE maintains existing management paradigm and tools for storage and will serve as a bridge between storage networking and other next-generation data center networks. Initially, FCoE offers SAN and systems administrators the benefit of being able to reduce the number of physical network interfaces in the server, which reduces costs and simplifies management. FCoE utilizes the mission-critical characteristics of Fibre Channel technology and works with existing infrastructure and applications.
The Spirent TestCenter FCoE solution helps assess the interaction of storage and data center traffic over a common interface. Built on Spirent's Fibre Channel hardware and software expertise, the introduction of its FCoE solution demonstrates the company's market leadership and commitment to advancing the development and deployment of the latest technologies. By leveraging its extensive expertise in the Fibre Channel and Ethernet marketplaces, Spirent delivers the most complete product of its kind with the ability to support Layer 2-7 network performance testing with a broad platform specifically designed for multi-play networks and multi-device technologies.
"Brocade is a pioneer who helped create the SAN industry and customers are now turning to us as a strategic and trusted vendor. Specifically, they are asking us to help them evolve their data centers with new technologies in mind while continuing to enjoy the benefits of the most innovative, high-performance data center fabric technologies available today," said Marty Lans, senior director in the Data Center Infrastructure Division at Brocade. "With the only product capable of pre-testing the performance and interoperability of the FCoE protocol for storage networks, working with Spirent will help ensure that our FCoE solutions will maintain industry-leading latency and loss behaviors and maintain Fibre Channel-like integrity of data connectivity"
"Testing is becoming a strategic imperative for our customers, especially as they consider developing technologies such as FCoE," said Tim Jefferson, general manager for Spirent TestCenter at Spirent Communications. "Spirent is in a unique position to serve this market since we are able extended our knowledge of Fibre Channel and Ethernet testing, and our expertise in the 10-Gigabit arena to develop the most comprehensive solution for testing a superior breed of storage network and data center solutions."
Test engineers now have the ability to analyze a number of critical occurrences including the encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel frame into an Ethernet frame, the emergence of Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) to help ensure lossless fabric, and the effect of replacing a Fibre Channel link with MAC addresses in CEE environments. Spirent TestCenter FCoE provides support for FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP), a control plane protocol, and Priority Flow Control (PFC), the advanced quality of service protocol for Ethernet. Ultimately, users of Spirent's FCoE solution can easily understand latency issues as well as the impact of packets which are dropped and scenarios such as loss of power.
Spirent Communications First Demo of Galileo Glonass
Spirent Communications plc today announced the first public demonstration of GPS/Galileo/GLONASS simulation system with Spirent GSS8000 (http://www.spirent.com/general/docview.cfm?D=5074) multi-constellation, multi-signal simulator at Institute of Navigation (ION) GNSS 2008 conference. Spirent's new GSS8000 GNSS simulator is a powerful, flexible platform providing solutions for R&D and system and application testing. The GSS8000 supports multi-system, multi constellation GNSS testing with industry leading flexibility, accuracy, and reliability.
Simulators are essential tools for GNSS R&D and system and application developers as they provide controlled, repeatable test signals. The GSS8000 on display from September 17 - 19 at ION GNSS 2008 conference in Savannah, Georgia includes GPS, Galileo and GLONASS signals, plus SBAS (WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS), combined at one RF output. The same system is also capable of generating signals representing the planned Japanese Quazi Zenith satellite system. Spirent will have GPS, GLONASS and Galileo receivers on their booth and intend to run a series of demonstrations throughout the show.
Representatives from Spirent Communications and Spirent Federal Systems will be at the ION GNSS 2008 show where the Spirent GSS8000 GNSS simulator will be a key focus of Spirent's exhibit. Spirent Federal Systems is the Spirent affiliate responsible for sales of Spirent equipment in the Americas.
Simulators are essential tools for GNSS R&D and system and application developers as they provide controlled, repeatable test signals. The GSS8000 on display from September 17 - 19 at ION GNSS 2008 conference in Savannah, Georgia includes GPS, Galileo and GLONASS signals, plus SBAS (WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS), combined at one RF output. The same system is also capable of generating signals representing the planned Japanese Quazi Zenith satellite system. Spirent will have GPS, GLONASS and Galileo receivers on their booth and intend to run a series of demonstrations throughout the show.
Representatives from Spirent Communications and Spirent Federal Systems will be at the ION GNSS 2008 show where the Spirent GSS8000 GNSS simulator will be a key focus of Spirent's exhibit. Spirent Federal Systems is the Spirent affiliate responsible for sales of Spirent equipment in the Americas.
Monday, 1 September 2008
DnsMux
IP load-balancing and traffic management appliances for enhanced performance, high availability, reliability, and disaster tolerance from Redhill Networks
Natural disasters can be unpredictable and unavoidable, but they do not need to cause systems to be unavailable.
As Internet and intranet applications continue to grow in popularity and criticality, as more and more users around the globe become connected to the Internet, and as applications are increasing served via the Internet, the demands for continuous availability and the cost of downtime continue to escallate. Today’s users demand ever-more stable computing environments and expect web sites to always be available.
Today’s users also demand high performance from anywhere in the world. Many companies are deploying additional hosting sites to satisfy user demands but face challenges as to how to connect users to the best servers to satisfy their requests and deliver high performance to users located far away from hosting servers
+ Introducing DnsMux
DnsMux™ is an intelligent DNS server that can ensure the uptime and of Web- and other IP-based applications by diverting traffic away from failed servers to servers at one or more different geographical locations, while also ensuring that users worldwide are connected to the best servers to meet performance and content objectives.
Availability of hosting servers becomes harder to manage when they are at different locations, so further challenges arise as to how to handle scheduled downtime – and, even more difficult, unscheduled downtime due to failure – of servers that are out of reach, while ensuring demands for continuous availability to users worldwide. DnsMux facilitates servers or entire sites to be taken out of operation at will, all from a Web-based interface anywhere in the world.
CAI Networks has created a simple and affordable solution to meet these challenges. With DnsMux, what has until now been available only to those with the resources to spend on high-priced solutions is now available to everyone.
+ What is DNSMux?
DnsMux is a network appliance that replaces conventional authoritative DNS servers, which offer limited functionality. In a multi-site environment, DNSMux provides all the functionality of existing DNS server but additionally offers:
High availability / failover: DnsMux automatically monitors the health of the web servers it controls; should a failure occur, or should one or more servers at a site be taken out of operation, DnsMux automatically sends new traffic to a functioning site
High performance / load balancing: DnsMux automatically detects heavily-loaded servers or sites and directs users to equivalent servers or sites with lighter loads
Affinity targeting: DnsMux can automatically determine the geographical location of each user and, based on configuration settings, route them to the appropriate web server or server farm that contains the appropriate content based on language, geography, etc.
+ High Availability / Failover
Natural disasters, power outages, ISP failures, and other problems can cause a site to be totally unreachable for a short or extended period of time. During that time, many users are likely to give up and assume the worst, since they will have no idea when the site may come back up, and are likely to abandon after retrying for a brief period of time. This can mean loss of confidence, and loss of business.
DnsMux handles such problems by regularly checking the health of each site (comprised of one or more web servers) it manages every few seconds to ensure that each is operational. Should the site experience problems, its servers are immediately taken out of service and new traffic is routed to another site. Such multiple sites can all be active, or one or more can be designed as hot standby. DnsMux can be configured to fail over to either any active site or to a specific site should a failure occur.
DnsMux’s health-checking uses OSI layer 4 to 7 network protocols and RSA-encrypted secure communication between DnsMuxes at all times. Should an abnormal situation be detected, DnsMux can be configured to send notification to a specified email address, mobile phone, or PDA.
+ Facilitates Planned and Unplanned Downtime
Besides being able to avoid unplanned downtime due to disaster or other mishap, DnsMux facilitates planned downtime for maintenance or other purpose by exempting one or more (or all) servers at a site from receiving traffic. During such times, traffic is diverted to other servers or other sites until the server(s) are brought back online.
DnsMux permits sites to be designated for normal operation, or they can act as hot standbys should another site fail.
+ Peak Performance for Geographically Distributed
Users and Sites
Whereas ordinary DNS servers directs users to multiple sites serving the same content on a rather arbitrary basis, DNSMux can route each user to the site that offers the best performance.
DnsMux can automatically determine each user’s approximate geographical location and the proximity to each server in a DnsMux-managed geographical network, and cause the traffic to be routed to the closest server that hosts the content being sought.
DnsMux regularly monitors the performance of each server it manages and routes traffic to the best performing servers, thereby ensuring optimal user response times. DnsMux can intelligently load-balance traffic between multiple sites as well as multiple servers at a site.
+ Affinity Targeting Connects Users to Appropriate Content
An important DnsMux feature for sites that contain disparate content is the ability to automatically routes users to the sites and servers containing appropriate content. Such affinities are typically based on geography – for example, routing users in Germany to German-language sites, or routing European users to a Europe site while US-based are routed to English-language sites in North America.
Such affinity targeting is accomplished via automatic determination of users’ locations and configuration settings identifying which geographies should be associated with various sites. If multiple servers can satisfy affinity-based user requests, DnsMux is able to route users to the closest ones, based on geographical proximity or measured performance.
Failover capability is employed so that if any of the DnsMux-managed sites should fail users will be automatically rerouted around them to the sites that contain the appropriate content.
+ High Security
DnsMux configuration and management is done via a browser-based interface, permitting remote administration from anywhere that has IP connectivity and secure access to the DnsMux unit. DnsMux contains its own firewall to enforce access only by authorized users or other DnsMux units with which it communicates.
DnsMux’s configuration and management features include:
Master/slave configuration capability permits changes to be made on one DnsMux and automatically propagated to other DnsMuxes in the network
DnsMux’s built-in firewall restricts configuration access to only authorized users
DnsMux is equipped with a second network interface, allowing administration tasks to be routed through a specified network
DnsMux can be located behind a NAT firewall or WebMux load balancer
The DnsMux unit includes a front keypad interface and menu-driven LCD display, which constantly updates its operational status.
To further ease implementation, CAI Networks can factory pre-configure a customer’s DnsMux unit(s) as a free service.
Natural disasters can be unpredictable and unavoidable, but they do not need to cause systems to be unavailable.
As Internet and intranet applications continue to grow in popularity and criticality, as more and more users around the globe become connected to the Internet, and as applications are increasing served via the Internet, the demands for continuous availability and the cost of downtime continue to escallate. Today’s users demand ever-more stable computing environments and expect web sites to always be available.
Today’s users also demand high performance from anywhere in the world. Many companies are deploying additional hosting sites to satisfy user demands but face challenges as to how to connect users to the best servers to satisfy their requests and deliver high performance to users located far away from hosting servers
+ Introducing DnsMux
DnsMux™ is an intelligent DNS server that can ensure the uptime and of Web- and other IP-based applications by diverting traffic away from failed servers to servers at one or more different geographical locations, while also ensuring that users worldwide are connected to the best servers to meet performance and content objectives.
Availability of hosting servers becomes harder to manage when they are at different locations, so further challenges arise as to how to handle scheduled downtime – and, even more difficult, unscheduled downtime due to failure – of servers that are out of reach, while ensuring demands for continuous availability to users worldwide. DnsMux facilitates servers or entire sites to be taken out of operation at will, all from a Web-based interface anywhere in the world.
CAI Networks has created a simple and affordable solution to meet these challenges. With DnsMux, what has until now been available only to those with the resources to spend on high-priced solutions is now available to everyone.
+ What is DNSMux?
DnsMux is a network appliance that replaces conventional authoritative DNS servers, which offer limited functionality. In a multi-site environment, DNSMux provides all the functionality of existing DNS server but additionally offers:
High availability / failover: DnsMux automatically monitors the health of the web servers it controls; should a failure occur, or should one or more servers at a site be taken out of operation, DnsMux automatically sends new traffic to a functioning site
High performance / load balancing: DnsMux automatically detects heavily-loaded servers or sites and directs users to equivalent servers or sites with lighter loads
Affinity targeting: DnsMux can automatically determine the geographical location of each user and, based on configuration settings, route them to the appropriate web server or server farm that contains the appropriate content based on language, geography, etc.
+ High Availability / Failover
Natural disasters, power outages, ISP failures, and other problems can cause a site to be totally unreachable for a short or extended period of time. During that time, many users are likely to give up and assume the worst, since they will have no idea when the site may come back up, and are likely to abandon after retrying for a brief period of time. This can mean loss of confidence, and loss of business.
DnsMux handles such problems by regularly checking the health of each site (comprised of one or more web servers) it manages every few seconds to ensure that each is operational. Should the site experience problems, its servers are immediately taken out of service and new traffic is routed to another site. Such multiple sites can all be active, or one or more can be designed as hot standby. DnsMux can be configured to fail over to either any active site or to a specific site should a failure occur.
DnsMux’s health-checking uses OSI layer 4 to 7 network protocols and RSA-encrypted secure communication between DnsMuxes at all times. Should an abnormal situation be detected, DnsMux can be configured to send notification to a specified email address, mobile phone, or PDA.
+ Facilitates Planned and Unplanned Downtime
Besides being able to avoid unplanned downtime due to disaster or other mishap, DnsMux facilitates planned downtime for maintenance or other purpose by exempting one or more (or all) servers at a site from receiving traffic. During such times, traffic is diverted to other servers or other sites until the server(s) are brought back online.
DnsMux permits sites to be designated for normal operation, or they can act as hot standbys should another site fail.
+ Peak Performance for Geographically Distributed
Users and Sites
Whereas ordinary DNS servers directs users to multiple sites serving the same content on a rather arbitrary basis, DNSMux can route each user to the site that offers the best performance.
DnsMux can automatically determine each user’s approximate geographical location and the proximity to each server in a DnsMux-managed geographical network, and cause the traffic to be routed to the closest server that hosts the content being sought.
DnsMux regularly monitors the performance of each server it manages and routes traffic to the best performing servers, thereby ensuring optimal user response times. DnsMux can intelligently load-balance traffic between multiple sites as well as multiple servers at a site.
+ Affinity Targeting Connects Users to Appropriate Content
An important DnsMux feature for sites that contain disparate content is the ability to automatically routes users to the sites and servers containing appropriate content. Such affinities are typically based on geography – for example, routing users in Germany to German-language sites, or routing European users to a Europe site while US-based are routed to English-language sites in North America.
Such affinity targeting is accomplished via automatic determination of users’ locations and configuration settings identifying which geographies should be associated with various sites. If multiple servers can satisfy affinity-based user requests, DnsMux is able to route users to the closest ones, based on geographical proximity or measured performance.
Failover capability is employed so that if any of the DnsMux-managed sites should fail users will be automatically rerouted around them to the sites that contain the appropriate content.
+ High Security
DnsMux configuration and management is done via a browser-based interface, permitting remote administration from anywhere that has IP connectivity and secure access to the DnsMux unit. DnsMux contains its own firewall to enforce access only by authorized users or other DnsMux units with which it communicates.
DnsMux’s configuration and management features include:
Master/slave configuration capability permits changes to be made on one DnsMux and automatically propagated to other DnsMuxes in the network
DnsMux’s built-in firewall restricts configuration access to only authorized users
DnsMux is equipped with a second network interface, allowing administration tasks to be routed through a specified network
DnsMux can be located behind a NAT firewall or WebMux load balancer
The DnsMux unit includes a front keypad interface and menu-driven LCD display, which constantly updates its operational status.
To further ease implementation, CAI Networks can factory pre-configure a customer’s DnsMux unit(s) as a free service.