Wednesday, 09 October 2024
Higher Education is continuing the move from legacy systems to the Cloud; the days of exclusively on-premise systems with high maintenance costs and limited scalability are gone. Cloud-based solutions offer flexibility and can scale resources during peak times in the academic calendar (think registration, results and clearing), but they also bring new challenges. Performance testing is an important element to ensure both systems and supporting infrastructure are up to the job and capable of servicing both normal and peak periods, ensuring a smooth digital experience for students, as well as stress free high traffic periods for IT teams!
Why Cloud-Based Systems Need Performance Testing
With the vast majority of Higher Education CIO’s recognising the value of cloud computing, the transition to cloud platforms is accelerating. It is estimated that well over half of all UK university application systems will be cloud-based by 2025, and increasing. This shift presents challenges for ensuring consistent performance after upgrades and enhancements, as Cloud environments demand ongoing testing to address potential latency issues and scalability needs during the timetabled high-traffic peak periods throughout the year.
As an example of a peak; during the Clearing period, universities can experience a surge that increases user volumes by up to 500% within hours. Without proper performance testing, such an increase could result in costly downtime or bad user experience, either of which could cost universities dearly in lost potential students.
Adapting Testing for the Cloud
When testing cloud applications, there are some important differences when compared to testing on-premise applications:
- Scalability and Elasticity: Cloud applications can dynamically scale based on demand, unlike fixed on-premise systems. Performance testing must simulate peak loads, such as during registration or exams, to ensure the application auto-scales effectively without degrading performance.
- Multi-Tenancy: Cloud-based applications often serve multiple institutions on shared infrastructure. Performance testing should account for the impact of other tenants’ activities, which can influence the system’s performance in ways that wouldn't affect on-premise solutions.
- Network Dependencies: Cloud applications rely on internet connectivity, making network latency and bandwidth critical factors. Performance tests need to simulate varying network conditions to assess how the application responds during high traffic and across different locations.
- Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) and Downtime: Cloud providers guarantee SLAs for performance and availability. Testing must verify that these SLAs are met under normal and peak conditions, and also assess how the system handles failures and automatic recovery.
- Resource Provisioning and Cost: Cloud environments offer scalable resources, but with cost implications. Performance testing should ensure the efficient use of resources like CPU and memory without over-provisioning, a key difference from fixed on-premise systems.
Enhancing the Student Experience
Bad performance of Student Records Systems and especially online registration / clearing can directly impact student satisfaction. If key systems fail during high-pressure periods, not only can the user experience be affected, the university can suffer reputational damage and a loss of revenue from potential students looking to enrol.
Summary
Performance testing is now a strategic necessity for higher education. As institutions continue moving to cloud-based solutions, performance testing ensures critical systems operate efficiently under stress, improving student satisfaction and future-proofing the digital infrastructure.
Prolifics Testing can help your institution handle surges during critical periods and deliver a seamless digital experience for your students. Whether you're migrating to the cloud or need ongoing support, we’ve got the expertise to keep your systems performing at their best.
At Prolifics Testing, we’ve worked with over 40 universities worldwide, conducting performance tests on a recurring basis. We ensure your systems are prepared for critical periods such as Initial Applications, Clearing, Module Registration, Timetabling, Student Enrolment, and HR Onboarding. Using cloud technology, we help identify issues in advance, saving time and costs.
