Leveraging cloud computing for Testing

When users dont have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them, how to Leverage for Testing.
What would be the test strategy change for different types of testing
Is the effort going to reduce / increase for the same set of applicaiton(s) in cloud environment?
Similar thoughts and how to foresee and adopt for next generation projects having infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) concepts incorporated.

Good Question, Cloud Computing has its challenges, The real issues behind the lack of testing and subsequent performance problems are the cost and complexity of testing on this scale using legacy tools. Testing cloud applications and networks demands a wide mix of application traffic, current security coverage, and incredibly high-performance and throughput. Essentially, you need to create a realistic testing environment with an ever-changing mix of applications and increasingly sophisticated security attacks. That makes delivering high performance a moving target.

That’s part of the reason performance and load testing on an enterprise or Internet scale has always been so painful, inefficient and costly. Now, push this to the cloud and you can begin to see a hint of the challenges ahead. Consider the added dynamic of routine maintenance, patches and upgrades and the need to factor in the time to test how the patches and upgrades will impact performance.

Limited Options for Performance and Load Testing in the Cloud
Historically, vendors have been left with few options, most of which would erode the very value propositions that make cloud computing so attractive—cost savings and agility. You could purchase or rent hundreds of servers to emulate users and application traffic, buy a whole bunch of testing software, purchase a slew of applications, license security attacks, and tie it together with a bunch of custom scripting. Or you could contract with a testing service provider and wait for a test window. Unfortunately, it’s not just a one and done proposition. Networks and applications change.

No one is arguing that testing in a cloud-based environment isn’t complex. It’s about as challenging as it gets. I’m just saying that performance, security and load testing has been far too difficult and expensive for far too long. And, the time for change has been dramatically accelerated with the onset of cloud computing.

Traditional testing tools were simply not designed for this dynamic, complex and high performance computing environments, and haven’t evolved to keep pace. Even a heavy hitter like HP LoadRunner is considered past its prime for today’s market needs. Without radical change in the performance and realism of today’s testing products, what we continue to refer to "truth in testing", cloud vendors will continue to be stuck between a rock and a hard place leading to the ultimate FAIL of cloud computing. I mean, if Google can’t do it with their immense resources, can it be done?

Karthikeyan:

Cloud testing does present configuration challenges. I don't think that cloud testing is impossible, but it does present challenges. A similar type of testing may be PTSN (Public Telephone Switching Network).

Telephone switch testing is somewhat similar to cloud testing, and has been done for many years.
Its a matter of breaking requirements down and making the tests for those requirements. End to end testing telephone switches is no inexpensive and easy task. As the technology changes, I am sure there will be some solutions that will satisfy the requirements.