JUNE 30, 2008 -- Spirent Communications plc (search for Spirent), provider of performance analysis and service management solutions, today announced the formation of the Test Automation Alliance (TAA), an ecosystem of test companies focused on improving productivity across the entire telecom product development and service deployment life cycle. The alliance promotes a common vision, enabling service providers and network equipment manufacturers to optimize lab resources through advanced automation.
Achieving seamless, straightforward, sustainable, and cost-effective test automation is a significant challenge for lab managers. TAA offers a unique framework called Automation Continuum, which integrates test automation technologies such as lab management, configuration management, test authoring, and test management.
"The Test Automation Alliance challenges the status quo and redefines testing as a continuum that integrates best-in-class lab testing tools to create a holistic approach to lab automation," explains Elisabeth Rainge, director of Network Software at IDC. "It focuses on the requirements of service providers and network equipment manufacturers to accelerate the deployment of new services and products as the testing cycles have begun to exceed development cycles."
Test automation traditionally is developed and supported with in-house options that require labs to shift highly skilled test operators from testing and troubleshooting to creating and supporting complex in-house test automation environments. Today, automation technologies are highly advanced and much more cost effective to deploy, which minimizes the need for in-house solutions.
The Automation Continuum enables test labs to either choose from a suite of device-agnostic, best-in-class tools targeted at advancing a specific area of their existing automation framework or purchase a complete test automation framework. No matter what level of automation the test labs have deployed, the alliance enables a continuum in automation advancements.
"TAA is a result of the ongoing dialogue Spirent and other alliance members had with lab managers and engineers who expressed concerns about diverse test systems and solutions that failed to interoperate effectively to address the complexity of testing emerging next generation technologies," explains Neil Anderson, vice president of Global Services at Spirent Communications. "With support from Spirent's suite of test systems and managed services, test labs are now able to cost effectively advance automation to drive productivity in the testing process."
While testing today's complex technologies, engineers need to employ a combination of complementary test automation tools to effectively validate performance of networks and services. Members of TAA say they have joined together to advance test automation by leveraging shared expertise, automation tools, and R&D investments to create a seamless, integrated Automation Continuum framework.
Members of the Spirent-led alliance include EdenTree Technologies, FanFare, and MRV.
Spirent's TestCenter offers what the company claims is "game-changing" testing productivity by covering a broad range of network technologies from Layer 2 to Layer 7 for LAN, enterprise, metropolitan, carrier, and broadband access networks and their devices--all on a single platform. EdenTree's software platform delivers a dynamic lab environment that optimizes equipment usage, sharing, and tracking. And Fanfare's test authoring and test management tools iTest Team and iTest Personal eliminate the need for manual and repetitive testing tasks. MRV brings a set of physical layer tools that enable test automation of the physical layer and facilitates remote testing, reduces cable-related test errors, and allows test equipment to be shared between multiple testers.
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