ITWire

Testing composite systems involving multiple applications running on multiple systems is complicated. And time consuming. And expensive. And what happens if you need to test a public-facing system under loads that it only bears on one day per year?

Well, what if there was a way that you could implement changes to one subsystem and *know* that it still work with all the others, and test it under perhaps 100 times the normal load - completely independently of the rest of the system?

That's where CA subsidiary ITKO's LISA platform comes in. LISA can capture transactions passing between subsystems, and then simulate the rest of the system when a component is being tested. Sources of data include CA's Wily application performance management and NetQoS network performance management products.

This proves that the individual applications continue to work together despite the changes, and allows stress testing by increasing the rate at which the simulated load is played back.

John Michelson, ITKO's chief technology officer, told iTWire that giving software developers and testers access to LISA is like giving aircraft wing designers a wind tunnel rather than expecting them to attach a redesigned wing to a complete aircraft for testing. "It is a transformational technology," he said.

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