What does HPE Mobile Center test?
HPE Mobile Center is essentially a gateway that helps your team centralize testing, monitoring, and mobile app lifecycle management activities. This is achieved through the centralized use of the fleet of mobile devices (physical and virtual, client and cloud) and integration with both HPE ALM products and Open Source (Appium / Selenium).
HPE Mobile Center is not limited to testing mobile applications and mobile versions of sites. By purchasing the initial HPE MC package, the user gets access to the cloud-based mobile application monitoring service AppPulse Mobile (limitedly for two applications), access to Fortify-on-Demand to test application security. Also, the most interesting and sought-after capabilities are for automatic and manual testing, especially since one license for HPE UFT — an automated functional testing module — is also included in the minimum HPE Mobile Center package, and Sprinter, a tool for manual application testing, is completely free for HPE MC owners .
The name itself - Mobile Center - emphasizes the importance and specificity of mobile testing. The HPE Software development center in Israel and China has a division where approximately 70 employees are involved in developing mobile testing tools and other related topics. And for good reason: in this area, their problems and their features, not always obvious at first glance.
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HPE Software development and testing products are a whole large package of HPE ADM tools and technologies (HPE Application Delivery Management) that are closely interconnected. We have already mentioned UFT, Sprinter and Mobile Center. In addition, HPE ADM includes: ALM Octane - version of ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) for planning, implementing and supporting development and implementation projects using Agile and DevOps methodologies; HPE LeanFT for writing unit tests in Java, JavaScript or C # in a familiar developer environment (MS Visual Studio, Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA), but using unique HPE UFT technologies, which, according to developers, significantly speeds up the development of such tests; HPE LoadRunner - everyone's favorite load testing tool, which has long been available for free (for a load of no more than 50 virtual users); HPE Network Virtualization network environment virtualization tool and the rapid development of plugs for integration environments and HPE Service Virtualization services.
But familiar names and familiar tools should not distract us from the idea that the world of mobile applications is special.
The peculiarity, of course, is not only in the notorious fragmentation of mobile devices, which has become a common place for critics of the Android platform. Here you can highlight a wide range of possibilities for using sensors of mobile devices, mobile gestures, etc. Other approaches are required. Of course, you can use mobile emulators - HPE Mobile Center supports both Google SDK and commercial emulators from Genymotion. But this approach does not allow one to answer with a fundamental question: how will the application interact with the hardware platform in the thousands of devices existing on the market?
There are two ways. First, they still test not a “black box”, but applications that were developed on one or another well-known software platform - Sencha Touch, Apache Cordova / PhoneGap, Adobe Air or Xamarin. After all, these platforms provide an opportunity to abstract away from many features of iron already in the product development phase.
The second (and even the first by value): testing coverage. It makes sense to go not from analytics of frameworks and code, but from analysis and knowledge about users of application data. If applications are being tested for use within an American company (there are many such customers), then there is no need to test cheap smartphones from Asia. And vice versa: developers from the Shanghai office who are familiar with devices that are popular in the local market will better understand the testing of applications for the Chinese market. The mobile center allows you to centralize all regional parks of mobile devices and give them access to all users. These devices can also be used for CI / CD cycles of continuous testing by Mobile Center users through a plugin for Jenkins and Bamboo.
In addition, life makes its own adjustments, because in the world of mobile business changes occur especially quickly. Microsoft is acquiring Xamarin, which means it’s worth focusing some of the effort on these technologies to be ready for a possible surge in customer interest. If the popularity of Adobe Air has subsided, the developers' efforts are more profitable to switch to the technology that is currently on the rise, for example, to Cordova. “We keep our ears open and our nose in the wind,” said Eugene Karasik, head of the HPE Mobile Center Development Center in Israel.
About a year ago, HPE acquired Shunra Software, a company specializing in network features virtualization software, HPE Network Virtualization, NV (since its employees are also in Israel and have been working with the Development Center for a long time). Work has begun on integrating NV with other HPE Software products. Mobile Center has another opportunity to break away from competitors: NV is also included in the Mobile Center kit. Added value, as they say in business.
Customers immediately became interested in the new product, which is not surprising: before that, mobile devices were physically tested: testers with mobile phones traveled around the country, describing how applications behave in different networks and regions. For Israel, the problem is probably small, but in Russia it would be a real madness, and it’s not for nothing that one of the leading domestic mobile operators has long been successfully using the HPE Mobile Center for these purposes. Of course, those who wish can be found in various parts of the country - the testers' community is huge, but the reliability and duration of the result of such nationwide tests may not suit all customers, especially corporate ones.
Of course, serious corporate clients are the core of HPE MC users. Most of them already use HPE products and / or services. They need mobile applications not only and not even so much for access from the “outside world”, but to make life easier and speed up the work of their own employees, be it a world bank, a global retailer, or an autobuilding giant. For internal applications, the predictability of applications within the corporate network, which is heterogeneous and complex, is particularly important.
Network virtualization, by the way, is not just a matter of convenience and reliability. By running virtual devices in virtual networks, you can gather information for analytics and then provide clients with recommendations for optimization: “Your application lacks header compression, so it will not work correctly on slow networks,” etc.
If the number of virtually tested networks grows (and how else?), Then if there is a huge fleet of devices, the number of combinations will be astronomical. There is no longer do without the use of artificial intelligence technology. Fortunately, the Mobile Center developers are no longer just using them, but, one might say, made a bet on them. This is an area of ​​Big Data, Sentiment Analysis (machine analysis of emotions), machine learning and other fashion technologies. It is expected that in the future analytical modules will become more and more popular.
Most likely, the HPE Mobile Center will also integrate a fleet of sensor devices - a step towards the upcoming Internet of things. Such a significant expansion of activity does not greatly burden the company's resources: in fact, it is the transfer of already developed technologies to new types of devices.
Few people doubt that customers will be interested in the possibilities of testing sensors from the world of IoT. Corporations wishing to look modern have already acquired new staff units — directors of the Internet of Things. Recall that among the 250 MC customers there are auto industry companies. In the newest car models there are already about 4 thousand different sensors - a small world of its own inside a single tin box. For them, the solution is obvious. But seemingly distant from IoT structures, such as banks, also show a keen interest in IoT. And here, the Russian IT specialist gets another chance not to catch up, but to try among the first.
HPE Mobile Center is not limited to testing mobile applications and mobile versions of sites. By purchasing the initial HPE MC package, the user gets access to the cloud-based mobile application monitoring service AppPulse Mobile (limitedly for two applications), access to Fortify-on-Demand to test application security. Also, the most interesting and sought-after capabilities are for automatic and manual testing, especially since one license for HPE UFT — an automated functional testing module — is also included in the minimum HPE Mobile Center package, and Sprinter, a tool for manual application testing, is completely free for HPE MC owners .
The name itself - Mobile Center - emphasizes the importance and specificity of mobile testing. The HPE Software development center in Israel and China has a division where approximately 70 employees are involved in developing mobile testing tools and other related topics. And for good reason: in this area, their problems and their features, not always obvious at first glance.
')
HPE Software development and testing products are a whole large package of HPE ADM tools and technologies (HPE Application Delivery Management) that are closely interconnected. We have already mentioned UFT, Sprinter and Mobile Center. In addition, HPE ADM includes: ALM Octane - version of ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) for planning, implementing and supporting development and implementation projects using Agile and DevOps methodologies; HPE LeanFT for writing unit tests in Java, JavaScript or C # in a familiar developer environment (MS Visual Studio, Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA), but using unique HPE UFT technologies, which, according to developers, significantly speeds up the development of such tests; HPE LoadRunner - everyone's favorite load testing tool, which has long been available for free (for a load of no more than 50 virtual users); HPE Network Virtualization network environment virtualization tool and the rapid development of plugs for integration environments and HPE Service Virtualization services.
But familiar names and familiar tools should not distract us from the idea that the world of mobile applications is special.
Mobile devices in the clouds
The peculiarity, of course, is not only in the notorious fragmentation of mobile devices, which has become a common place for critics of the Android platform. Here you can highlight a wide range of possibilities for using sensors of mobile devices, mobile gestures, etc. Other approaches are required. Of course, you can use mobile emulators - HPE Mobile Center supports both Google SDK and commercial emulators from Genymotion. But this approach does not allow one to answer with a fundamental question: how will the application interact with the hardware platform in the thousands of devices existing on the market?
There are two ways. First, they still test not a “black box”, but applications that were developed on one or another well-known software platform - Sencha Touch, Apache Cordova / PhoneGap, Adobe Air or Xamarin. After all, these platforms provide an opportunity to abstract away from many features of iron already in the product development phase.
The second (and even the first by value): testing coverage. It makes sense to go not from analytics of frameworks and code, but from analysis and knowledge about users of application data. If applications are being tested for use within an American company (there are many such customers), then there is no need to test cheap smartphones from Asia. And vice versa: developers from the Shanghai office who are familiar with devices that are popular in the local market will better understand the testing of applications for the Chinese market. The mobile center allows you to centralize all regional parks of mobile devices and give them access to all users. These devices can also be used for CI / CD cycles of continuous testing by Mobile Center users through a plugin for Jenkins and Bamboo.
In addition, life makes its own adjustments, because in the world of mobile business changes occur especially quickly. Microsoft is acquiring Xamarin, which means it’s worth focusing some of the effort on these technologies to be ready for a possible surge in customer interest. If the popularity of Adobe Air has subsided, the developers' efforts are more profitable to switch to the technology that is currently on the rise, for example, to Cordova. “We keep our ears open and our nose in the wind,” said Eugene Karasik, head of the HPE Mobile Center Development Center in Israel.
Virtualization continues: now network
About a year ago, HPE acquired Shunra Software, a company specializing in network features virtualization software, HPE Network Virtualization, NV (since its employees are also in Israel and have been working with the Development Center for a long time). Work has begun on integrating NV with other HPE Software products. Mobile Center has another opportunity to break away from competitors: NV is also included in the Mobile Center kit. Added value, as they say in business.
Customers immediately became interested in the new product, which is not surprising: before that, mobile devices were physically tested: testers with mobile phones traveled around the country, describing how applications behave in different networks and regions. For Israel, the problem is probably small, but in Russia it would be a real madness, and it’s not for nothing that one of the leading domestic mobile operators has long been successfully using the HPE Mobile Center for these purposes. Of course, those who wish can be found in various parts of the country - the testers' community is huge, but the reliability and duration of the result of such nationwide tests may not suit all customers, especially corporate ones.
Of course, serious corporate clients are the core of HPE MC users. Most of them already use HPE products and / or services. They need mobile applications not only and not even so much for access from the “outside world”, but to make life easier and speed up the work of their own employees, be it a world bank, a global retailer, or an autobuilding giant. For internal applications, the predictability of applications within the corporate network, which is heterogeneous and complex, is particularly important.
Network virtualization, by the way, is not just a matter of convenience and reliability. By running virtual devices in virtual networks, you can gather information for analytics and then provide clients with recommendations for optimization: “Your application lacks header compression, so it will not work correctly on slow networks,” etc.
If the number of virtually tested networks grows (and how else?), Then if there is a huge fleet of devices, the number of combinations will be astronomical. There is no longer do without the use of artificial intelligence technology. Fortunately, the Mobile Center developers are no longer just using them, but, one might say, made a bet on them. This is an area of ​​Big Data, Sentiment Analysis (machine analysis of emotions), machine learning and other fashion technologies. It is expected that in the future analytical modules will become more and more popular.
New parks: IoT
Most likely, the HPE Mobile Center will also integrate a fleet of sensor devices - a step towards the upcoming Internet of things. Such a significant expansion of activity does not greatly burden the company's resources: in fact, it is the transfer of already developed technologies to new types of devices.
Few people doubt that customers will be interested in the possibilities of testing sensors from the world of IoT. Corporations wishing to look modern have already acquired new staff units — directors of the Internet of Things. Recall that among the 250 MC customers there are auto industry companies. In the newest car models there are already about 4 thousand different sensors - a small world of its own inside a single tin box. For them, the solution is obvious. But seemingly distant from IoT structures, such as banks, also show a keen interest in IoT. And here, the Russian IT specialist gets another chance not to catch up, but to try among the first.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/308108/
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