What is Azure DevTest Labs?

 

Azure DevTest Labs allow a business to develop/test applications quickly and save money in the process. As the stress of developing, testing and publishing applications quickly continues to rise, Azure DevTest Labs provide a unique and innovative way to reduce the time it takes to go from design to production. Using DevTest Labs will not only provide the ability to create infrastructure on demand but it will also provide a platform for a business to ultimately reduce development time and allowing for a better quality end product.

One of the key factors that enables a business to utilise DevTest Labs effectively – it provides quick access to production like virtual environments for developers to use as and when they require.

Azure IaaS gives a business access to on demand, scalable resources that can spin up a development environment in little time at all. Virtual machines can be created from a multitude of methods:

  • Azure VM gallery, 100s of pre configured windows and Linux based images
  • Custom images that a business may have already created and saved
  • Existing VHDs that may have been created and stored

Developers can use Visual Studio with DevTest Labs to perform load and performance tests on applications, Visual Studio will provide resources required to simulate once a developer has defined the scale and testing criteria.

In my opinion there are 2 key factors that can impact a business if using DevTest Labs:

  1. Control
  2. Cost

Control
Having the ability to create a virtual machine / environment within a few clicks allow developers to begin work quicker, giving more time to focus on actually developing an application or end product.

There is greater control when moving from a test environment to a production environment. With developers being able to create a full working environment with ease in DevTest Labs they can fully test and see how an environment would function in a production situation. This itself could reduce the amount of downtime required for a change because it has already been tested and developers will understand how the environment works.

Cost
Using DevTest Labs will reduce the requirement for on prem infrastructure and the time it would take to setup any hardware that would be required for an environment. There is also no requirement for money to be spent on disposing of out dated hardware etc.

DevTest Labs provide a business with the ability to schedule virtual machines to automatically shutdown and start up. This ability will enable a business to schedule machines to only be operational during open hours, instead of a machine being operational 24hours a day, it can be set to only operate for example 8 hours, a difference of 16 hours and reducing the risk of human error and leaving machines powered on.

Final thoughts…

With the IT industry becoming increasingly more competitive, it is becoming critical that a business has the ability to produce quality products within a short time frame. A combination of Azure DevTest Labs and having a structured Dev approach can provide a business with a sound strategy. Allowing a businesses employees to reach their full potential without worrying about infrastructure and at the same time lowering a businesses outgoings.

 

 

 

 

 

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