Every IT organization generally suspects that there is probably something amiss with the custom software they develop, but figuring out exactly what that might be is often problematic. And not because the right tools to accomplish that task are lacking; it’s just that the cost of acquiring those tools, developing the expertise to master them and paying for the associated IT infrastructure often proves daunting.
Of course, many IT organizations have taken to moving application testing into the cloud to help reduce IT infrastructure costs. But a lot of companies are wary of moving the intellectual property often associated with custom application development projects into the cloud.
Given those concerns, it’s interesting to see CAST Software today roll out CAST Highlight, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that remotely analyzes the quality of an application without requiring the IT organization to upload code to a cloud computing platform.
According to Jitendra Subramanyam, director of strategy and research for CAST Software, there are major structural issues in most large-scale applications, which results in post-deployment adjustments to applications that can wind up costing companies millions of dollars. This so-called “technical debt” has become a major issue as IT organizations look to rein in application development costs by focusing more on quality assurance issues, which include potential security vulnerabilities that should be addressed before the application is deployed.
CAST Highlight doesn’t do everything that CAST’s flagship Application Intelligence Platform is capable of, but Subramanyam notes that by using CAST Highlight to identify problematic areas first, the time it takes to identify and remediate potential software quality issues is sharply reduced.
As businesses everywhere become more dependent on software, it’s obvious that almost any issue with the quality of that software can bring about a major disruption to the business. What’s changing, thanks to the advent of automated software testing, is that IT organizations are rapidly running out of excuses for deploying software that later on is discovered to be deeply flawed.
Source:http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/vizard/running-out-of-software-excuses/?cs=47151
