Skytap
Virtual Software Testing

Skytap provides virtual IT infrastructure as an on-demand service. The startup is a spin-off from a research project at the University of Washington's computer science department. Originally called Illumita, the company came out of stealth mode five months ago.

Skytap's Virtual Lab can be used to construct virtual machines that are similar in composition to the software stacks in your data center. Users can select from a library of operating systems, choosing among versions of Linux, Solaris, and Windows, and databases, including MySQL and SQL Server. The options include VMs created from VMware ESX or Citrix XenSource hypervisors, and next from Microsoft's Hyper-V.

Earlier this month, Skytap added a Web services API and one-click VPN connection that IT shops can use to make Skytap an extension of their data centers. For example, in addition to working with applications already in the Skytap library or produced specifically to work in the cloud, customers can run custom applications in the Skytap Virtual Lab, says Ian Knox, director of product management.

Here's another usage scenario: A company has a group of U.S.-based business logic developers who produce code that gets tested at night by a team in Mumbai, India, using Skytap Virtual Lab. The test runs in virtual machines and can show "exactly where the application fails" by letting the developers call up the stored VM tests and run them again to the breaking point, says chief product officer Steve Brodie.

Virtual Lab supports testing software for function, performance, and quality assurance, and it can be used for preproduction staging, where software stacks are run to ensure that any parts that have changed remain compatible. Hewlett-Packard uses Skytap to demonstrate for customers how its LoadRunner performance testing tool works.

An IT department that's short on hardware, data center space, or money can use Virtual Lab to extend its resources. It provides access to more copies of an operating system and to more storage, letting them capture and store a large number of performance and quality-assurance test results. A calculator on Skytap's Web site can be used to compare the cost of Virtual Lab to an on-premises software testing lab.

Skytap has 20 customers, including hosted services provider Savvis and distance learning solutions supplier VDI Works. Its investors include Madrona Venture Group, Ignition Partners, Washington Research Foundation Capital, and Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions.

Virtual machines first took root in software testing labs, where developers could safely run new code in various environments. VMs then spread to the development process, to quality assurance, to staging grounds where new systems could be tested, then finally into production. Brodie says he expects Virtual Lab to follow a similar adoptive curve.

-- Charles Babcock

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