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VFD-LogoDuring the second day of the third edition of Virtualization Field Day (#VFD3) one of the companies that we (as delegates) met was Spirent, that was (at least for me) a new name in the virtualization ecosystem. The company itself is well know in other fields and area, especially in test, measurement and service assurance solutions.

There where pioneered in testing of Ethernet networks, IP Telephony and VoIP, VPNs, Multiplay, Cloud Computing environments, Data Center networks, CDMA applications, and Location Based Services. Spirent’s lab test solutions are used to evaluate performance of the latest technologies. As new communication services and applications are introduced in the market, Spirent provides tools for service management and field test to improve troubleshooting and quality. Spirent also enables enterprises, institutions and government agencies to secure and manage their networks.

But how does it fit with the virtualization and the virtual datacenters? Virtualization performance tuning not well understood, there are unpredictable chains effect, tricky multi-layer performance factors and for medium / large (or cloud oriented) environment there is a big dynamic. Spirent try to find some solutions and approaches for this issues.

First to all they have a methodology for testing and validate solution using a Efficient Virtualized Continuous Integration (EVCI):

Spirent-Model

Then, they have different type of products and solutions, starting from products for routers and switches testing (included the new OpenFlow and SDN based networks) to the application layer.

Spirent has a long history in L2-L7 testing and the extension in the Network Virtualization (NV) space is a natural (but really interesting) evolution. For more information just check their announcement at Interop at the end of the month. Of course in the networks and devices area there are lot of other type of testing (not stricly related with the virtualization) that are completly covered by Spirent, like for example LTE and Wi-Fi offload testing.

But more important Spirent has a test orchestration framework in order to automate the testing procedures cross layers and end to end with library of composed set tests or the ability to run atomic tests.

iTest is an integrated test authoring and execution solution built for testers, developers, and automation teams. It provides QA organizations with a unified approach for rapidly developing, automating, and maintaining test cases.

Spirent-iTest

There is also a cloud based service named Blitz, that it’s mainly a Test-as-a-Service solution for Application Performance Management. Blitz has been purpose built to help application and website developers like you throughout this lifecycle with powerful yet simple capabilities including continuous monitoring, performance testing and remediation.

For more information see also:

Disclaimer: I’ve been invited to this event by Gestalt IT and they will paid for accommodation and travels, but I’m not compensated for my time and I’m not obliged to blog. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any other person than me.

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Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.