Running CloudTest on Akamai Cloud Computing
Akamai Cloud Computing is a platform that offers distributed cloud and edge computing services for businesses across the globe — helping teams build, deploy, and manage applications and workloads on the world’s most distributed network.
This cloud and edge computing suite is well-suited for egress traffic workloads, with a real-time load testing solution called CloudTest that runs frequent load tests at a reasonable price.
Read on to learn more about CloudTest — and to discover how you can use this innovative load testing solution to better stress test your organization’s websites and apps.
What is CloudTest?
Akamai's load testing solution, CloudTest, lets you quickly perform load tests that simulate scenarios real users will encounter. By doing so, you can promptly identify possible issues and mitigate risks before they impact users.
This solution can also handle larger loads with broader geographical reach, with unlimited real-time analytic processing of test results and performance data. Figure 1 shows diagnostics from an example CloudTest dashboard, including average response time vs. virtual users, send rate, bandwidth usage, and receive rate.
Fig. 1: CloudTest dashboard example
Purchasing a CloudTest license allows for an unlimited number of load testing attempts for your organization. A CloudTest Professional Service consultant can assist you and your organization with CloudTest setup and onboarding.
CloudTest supports 25 core Akamai Cloud Computing locations, enabling you to globally distribute load tests and generate higher traffic volumes.
Benefits of CloudTest integration
By running CloudTest on Akamai Cloud Computing, you can:
Conduct unlimited large-scale global load tests
Avoid network transfer egress cost complexity for load testing
Simulate more realistic load testing by generating load servers that are distinct from other cloud environments
Conduct unlimited large-scale global load tests
Your organization can globally scale collaborative testing sessions in real time and tap into global big data analytics engines with unlimited data point processing to understand performance. Configure tests by setting conditionals, loops, nest actions, parameters, variables, and validations — these can be reused and combined with other tests as needed. From there, you can test production volumes that reflect your user base with no coding required and get instant results by increasing or decreasing simulated load as necessary.
Avoid network transfer egress cost complexity for load testing
With real-time, actionable load test performance analytics delivered by CloudTest, you can quickly reduce costs by identifying and eliminating egress performance bottlenecks from code, networks, servers, and databases. CloudTest also lets you scale back as much as needed if egress complexity is high. And if you need more help in reducing egress complexity, you can always contact our expert team who have vast experience in complex, large-scale production testing for network transfer egress.
Simulate more realistic load testing by generating load servers
With CloudTest as a fully managed service by Akamai’s performance experts or as a self-service solution, you can perform load testing in more environments with which customers will actually interact. Then, you can replace servers as needed to deploy your load test infrastructure across cloud providers and detect errors.
More on integrating CloudTest with Akamai Cloud Computing
Figure 2 demonstrates CloudTest’s multifaceted approach to conducting load testing. The CloudTest Main & Results database is a controller that creates a test configuration, generates and manages loads, visualizes dashboards, and reserves results. Maestros are deployed from the Main server when needed for load testing.
Fig. 2: CloudTest architectural diagram
Figure 3 and Figure 4 are examples of CloudTest loads and average time to first byte (TTFB), respectively. CloudTest offers robust visualization features, allowing users to display the load amount generated per region. It also provides performance insights by geographical location.
Fig. 3: CloudTest dashboard visualizing load by location
Fig. 4: CloudTest dashboard visualizing average TTFB by location
Getting started with CloudTest
The following table is a comprehensive breakdown of the components you’ll need to integrate across your organization, including instance types for the infrastructure as a service component.
Item |
Quantity |
Instance type |
Cost (per month or hour) |
Mandatory? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CloudTest Main & |
1 |
Dedicated 64 GB plan |
US$576 per month |
Yes |
Backups |
1 |
NA |
US$80 per month |
Recommended |
Image storage |
Depends on a test scenario |
25 GB storage |
US$2.50 per month |
Depends on a test scenario |
Maestros |
Depends on a test scenario |
Dedicated 16 GB plan |
US$0.216 per hour |
Depends on a test scenario |
CloudTest components (pricing list)
The dedicated 64 GB plan is recommended for use with the CloudTest Main & Results database and offers an 8 TB transfer allowance — so, in most test cases, you won't need to worry about egress costs.
In addition to purchasing compute instances, your organization will need to secure a CloudTest license, the price of which depends on the maximum number of virtual users that you intend to generate.
Create, deliver, and report improved load testing
Ready to get started with CloudTest on Akamai Cloud Computing? An Akamai CloudTest consultant can help set up your organization’s new CloudTest environment and support you in creating, delivering, and reporting improved load testing. Contact your Akamai sales representative for CloudTest license and professional services pricing information.
Fig. 5: Three key service components