Load and stress testing

Load and stress testing of website and client/server applications accounts for the largest test segment of Platform Lab clients. Clients from Boston to Atlanta to Seattle utilize Platform Lab to provide the key hardware, software and bandwidth required for all types of load and stress testing. Platform Lab has created test environments for load tests up to 28,000 concurrent users.

The primary reasons these firms seek out Platform Lab to be their load test resource are due to:

1. Massive bandwidth capability -- Platform Lab 1 Gb Internet connectivity at all four locations. Clients may request dedicated bandwidth from 1 Mb to over 1 Gb.
2. Flexibility -- Platform Lab can provide bandwidth for purpose of testing in per Mb per day increments, and client may request varying bandwidth for every day of their test.
3. Cost effectiveness -- As a non-profit, Platform Lab can allocate the hardware and bandwidth for much less than most any internal or external resource.
4. Partnerships -- Platform Lab has partnerships in place with Mercury, Compuware, Segue(Borland), Paessler, and AccordSQA to provide quick, access to a variety of testing tools. Platform Lab does NOT mark up cost of tool utilization.
5. Expertise -- Platform Lab is affiliated with over 100 IT consulting firms that can evaluate client needs, offer test strategies and conduct testing.

Bandwidth is allocated to clients on a per Mb, per day basis for $12/Mb/day. Bandwidth requests over 100 Mb cost $9/Mb/day. Platform Lab has outstanding flexibility in this regard and can vary the request bandwidth every day.

Example: A client would like to establish a 500 concurrent user test and believes that the test will utilize 5 Mb, a 5 day test would incur a bandwidth surcharge of $300 ($12 x 5 days x 5 Mb). If this client discovered after day two if the test that 8 Mb is required, the bandwidth surcharge would be $600 ($12 x 2 days x 5 Mb + $12 x 3 days x 8 Mb).

Load testing clients generally engage Platform Lab one of two ways:

1) Drive load from the Lab to the existing (production or beta) website.

This is a very simple and quick set up on behalf of the Lab. The client states how many concurrent users a test will need, the preferred test tool and the length of the test. We create the load test driver environment quickly and setup time is measured in hours, not days.

2) Create the web application or client/server environment at Platform Lab, as well and the infrastructure to drive load against it.

The client will need to specify the exact infrastructure needs to Platform Lab. Often, we will need to work with our vendor partners in order to provide and fulfill client requests.

An advantage of conducting this test at Platform Lab is that the client will often specify a couple different sizes of the target infrastructure in order to build an in-house "right-size". Platform Lab has outstanding relationships with HP, Sun, Cisco, Dell, EqualLogic and several other vendors to arrange for trail evaluations prior to an eventual purchase, pending a successful test.

Platform Lab would like to thank the following firms for their support:

Success Stories involving Platform Lab clients can be found at Victoria's Secret Catalog, Borland Software(Segue) and Longaberger.