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Why Security and Outsourcing Are Key Trends in Testing and Performance
While most of the major players in the T&P market seem to be running in place, several trends and new challenges have come to the fore in recent months.
by Chris Preimesberger
Posted September 29, 2003
When an IT shop tests and optimizes its code while plowing through the software development cycle, the testing it is doing is aimed more often at leaks in security and authentication apparatus. This isn't your father's IT testing anymore; T&P isn't exclusively for improving the speed and efficiency of the application.
Sure, overall software quality remains Job One, but thanks to increased virus and worm activity in recent months, back doors and cracks in applications are being put on center stage and swathed in floodlights in an effort to identify Achilles heels. Nonetheless, hackers seem to be retaining a slight edge in the battle of corporate systems security; just read the daily news for supporting data.
That's trend No. 1 in the business right now. No. 2 shouldn't be a surprise: outsourcing. An increasing number of companies are sending their work offshore to be tested and optimized. The key question: Can you really trust your code to strangers on some faraway continent?
Lastly, the nascent rise in enterprise grid computing, led by IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, is causing some new challenges in T&P.
But let's start with an overall look at the state of the market.
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