Every person has heard a developer say “it works on my machine”. This simple and true statement has been at the center of so many non-reproducible software defects. The problem is testers need to work in an environment as close to production as possible, that means keeping developers out and keeping the test environment pristine. Developers need to move through the development process and make sure their code works, which means having an environment that suits their needs. In other words, the developer environment may not be pristine, but it works the way they need it to work so developers can continue to work.

So in this age old conflict of “it works on my machine” who is right, the developer or the tester? Guess what, both are right! And now, thanks to virtual lab technology the phrase “it works on my machine” can be stricken from the vocabulary of a developer and never heard by a tester again, because they will always be able to replicate the defect in question.

How? Virtual lab technology. Virtual lab technology uses virtualization technology to give testers an environment as close to production as possible. This ability to take a snapshot of the production environment and replicate it through virtualization eliminates the expense of establishing, maintaining, and managing a test lab.

Testers can test in the environment as close to production as possible, identify defects and simply give the developer the URL of the defect! Developers are able to eliminate the time consuming back and forth dialog with testers and easily replicate the defect in the same environment as close to production as possible!

And, because virtual lab technology offers self-service provisioning the bottleneck of waiting for the ops team to provision an environment is gone!

Think about it – bottleneck reduction, environments as close to production as possible, reproducible defects – this is what we have been waiting for and it is here today in the form of virtual lab technology.

We at voke recently released our Market Snapshot Report: Virtual Lab Management in which we surveyed 100 organizations using virtual lab technology. We found that virtual lab technology helped increase productivity, decrease the number of servers and physical machines required, and saved money. Check out the report available to voke Research subscribers at: www.vokeinc.com.

We also launched a new free on-demand webcast series to discuss the most frequently asked questions of voke analysts. In the first webcast series, we answer the question “what tool should I buy for virtual lab management”. We are also joined by leading market vendors Citrix, CloudShare, and VMLogix to answer the question “how do I justify a virtual lab solution”. 

Think about how your organization is working. Are you being asked to lower your capital expenses and do more with less? Do you have to wait for environments to be provisioned? Do you have the age old developer/tester conflict on non-reproducible defects because of differing environments? If you answer yes to any of these questions, virtual lab technology is a solution to investigate. The ROI is quick and easy to identify and calculate. And, best of all, there are solid solutions on the market today to help you on your way to creating peace and harmony between your developers and testers.

• Surgient and Wipro Partner to Deliver Test Lab Management Solutions
• Leading Companies Meet to Discuss Business Benefits of Virtual Lab Management at First Surgient Regional User Group Meetings
• Surgient and Utopia Solutions Webinar to Discuss Software Delivery Acceleration through Automation and Virtual Lab Management