Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, provides software, experts, and best practices to make the world’s most important technologies perform at their best for leading organisations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited US websites. Among Compuware’s application performance management (APM) offerings is Gomez Web Load Testing, an easy-touse, on-demand performance testing solution built to ensure the success of critical web and mobile business initiatives. Unlike other website monitoring and testing solutions that don’t realistically simulate load from the end users’ perspective, Gomez Web Load Testing generates scalable, high-volume, data centre-based and real-world load from thousands of Gomez Last Mile desktops around the globe. The result is the most accurate measurement of response times and end-user experience under load.

1. Compuware Gomez
On-demand Web Load and
Performance Testing
Compuware Corporation, the technology
performance company, provides software,
experts, and best practices to make the
world’s most important technologies
perform at their best for leading
organisations worldwide, including 46 of
the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12
of the top 20 most visited US websites.
Among Compuware’s application
performance management (APM) offerings
is Gomez Web Load Testing, an easy-to-
use, on-demand performance testing
solution built to ensure the success of
critical web and mobile business initiatives.
Unlike other website monitoring and
testing solutions that don’t realistically
simulate load from the end users’
perspective, Gomez Web Load Testing
generates scalable, high-volume, data
centre-based and real-world load from
thousands of Gomez Last Mile desktops
around the globe. The result is the most
accurate measurement of response times
and end-user experience under load.
Gomez Web Load Testing enables
organisations to deploy new web and
mobile initiatives with confidence, and
identify and resolve issues before end
users do. Gomez clients use Web Load
Testing when: Launching marketing and
sales campaigns
• Rolling out new web and mobile sites,
applications and features
• Planning for seasonal and holiday spikes
in web traffic
• Upgrading or implementing
virtual infrastructures
• Deploying new mobile initiatives
Compuware Gomez Leverages the
Cloud for Web Load Testing
case study
Challenge: Meeting the
Growing Needs of Clients
To conduct a load test, Gomez clients go
to a portal and select the number of virtual
users, the duration of the test in hours,
and the cloud provider’s datacenter(s)
from which the test will be launched. A
single load test can simulate hundreds
of thousands of concurrent users and
up to tens of millions of page views per
hour. Clients are charged based on the
total virtual user hours. When scheduled,
an application programming interface
(API) automatically loads the appropriate
number of agents (i.e., browsers) on a
cloud provider’s servers.
The advantage of using a cloud provider is
that Gomez only pays for servers that are
“spun up” during the load test.
“Infrastructure on demand is far more
economical than building out and
managing our own infrastructure,”
says Colin Mason, web load testing
product manager for Compuware’s
APM business.
“Amazon was the first cloud provider we
worked with because they were the first to
market with a viable cloud.”
As Gomez’s business grew, so did the
demand for load volume.
“We test some of the biggest web
applications on the planet,” says Mason.
“No single cloud vendor has enough
volume and diversity to do the big
load tests.”
industry:
Business Services
country:
United States
business challenge:
Expansion of load testing capacity
to meet client demand for
increasingly larger load volumes
and diversity of cloud providers and
datacenter locations
solution:
load testing traffic and improve
cloud provider diversity
services:
OpSource Cloud Hosting
results:
• Gomez’s business has soared
due in part to the popularity of
OpSource- driven load tests
• Additional capacity for
on-demand expansion
• The scalability of infrastructure has
helped Gomez to gain new clients

2. case study | Gomez
At the same time, Gomez clients began
requesting more choices in data centres
from which to launch tests to reflect
regional differences.
Solution
In 2008, Gomez began to search for a
second cloud provider that could supply
the additional volume and diversity Gomez
required to satisfy client demand. Elastic
capacity was important, but so was
elastic pricing.
“Some of the other cloud vendors billed by
the month. Once you turned it on you paid
for the month, even if you only needed
it for an hour. OpSource, a Dimension
Data company, addressed the need for
competitive hourly billing,” recalls Mason.
Equally important for Mason was the ability
to spin the cloud provider’s machines up
and down quickly through an API.
“APIs are critical to us. Without them we’d
need a human sitting around waiting for a
client to schedule a
load test.”
After investigating nearly a dozen cloud
providers, Gomez chose OpSource’s Cloud
Hosting platform. OpSource had the cloud
infrastructure pricing model Mason was
looking for.
“What we get from OpSource is
infrastructure on demand, where we simply
pay for what we need.”
During the implementation stage OpSource
exceeded Mason’s expectations.
“They were very good at helping us get
started. They provided knowledgeable
support and good documentation; and
whenever there were hurdles, they bent
over backwards to help us through it. In
short, they did what they said they
could do.”
OpSource has enabled Gomez to spin
up and then spin down servers quickly
on demand, ensuring that each client’s
schedule request is met.
“The infrastructure is there when we
want it,” says Mason.
Impact: Scalability, Flexibility
Gomez’s business has soared in the past
two years, due in part to the popularity of
OpSource-driven load tests. Today, dozens
of tests are scheduled each day. “Within a
month of implementing OpSource, nearly
half the tests run over our entire network
were run using OpSource,” says Mason.
OpSource has given Gomez plenty of
room to grow.
“We’ve spun up some pretty big capacity
with OpSource, as many as 200 virtual
machines in one data centre with 800
CPUs and 800 gigabytes of RAM,” says
Mason. “OpSource has given us the ability
to drive bigger load tests from more data
centre, which directly impacts our bottom
line.”
The scalability of OpSource’s infrastructure
has helped Gomez to gain new clients
as well.
“OpSource has directly impacted our
ability to close some very large deals,”
says Mason.
“What we get from OpSource is infrastructure on demand, where
we simply pay for what we need. OpSource was very good at
helping us get started. They provided knowledgeable support
and good documentation; and whenever there were hurdles,
they bent over backwards to help us through it.”
Colin Mason, Web Load Testing Product Manager, Compuware APM
For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com/solutionsCS / DDMS-0844 / 12/11 © Copyright Dimension Data 2011