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A Solution Blueprint for Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS)
White Paper
LaaS can be implemented in all forms of on-line self-service labs which may be used
exclusively by, or under the direction of, an organization’s staff, or “for-hire” labs used by lab
customers.
This paper applies to labs that are hosted in any facility whether it it is a private lab, a data-
center,, or any other form of private/public/hybrid cloud, or a mixture of those facility types.
This paper applies when the lab resources are physical, virtualized or hybrid of both.
In addition to explaining the solution benefits, this Lab-as-a-Service Solution Blueprint
describes the following solution components:
Lab consolidation
Best practices
Tools
Virtual and cloud technologies
Expertise and professional services
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Executive summary
Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS), when implemented according to best practices and combined with the appropriate technology and staff, provides many compelling benefits for organizations, lab users, lab administrators and customers:
Benefits of LaaS include reducing:
Time-to-market
Capital costs
Operating costs
While realizing more with improvements in:
Security and safety
Regulatory compliance
Staff satisfaction
Overall product quality Build LaaS LaaSTest
ConfigureHelp
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LaaS contextLabs consist of people, process and products as illustrated in Figure 1: Lab Components. The efficiency of a lab is determined by
the quality of these components and the practices followed when administering and using them.
Tools Patch panel Systems under test Facility(power, cooling,
racks, room)
Sta�and procedures
Figure 1: Lab Components
Prior to implementation of LaaS many organizations create
separate special-purpose labs for different teams in the
development/delivery pipeline including separate labs
for development teams, QA, pre-production, release and
production environments. Each of these labs has its own
infrastructure, tools, systems under test, and support staff
with varying degrees of capabilities and budgets. The result
is that most of these labs are not well coordinated, are not
sufficient to meet peak demands and cannot use economies
of scale needed for the entire organization to optimize
performance or ROI.
This section describes seven factors that drive the need for
LaaS solutions:
Time to market
Product quality
Capital costs
Operating costs
Security and safety
Regulatory compliance
Staff satisfaction
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Time-to-market
An organization with multiple labs in the development-to-delivery pipeline must hand-off changes in the forward direction, and
hand-off change request information in the backwards direction. As indicated in Figure 2: Lab Hand-offs Cause Delays, every
hand-off is a source of inefficiency and time delays.
ChangeChange
Change
Dev1
Dev2
Re-do
Re-do Re-do
Integration Production
Figure 2: Lab Hand-offs Cause Delays
Organizations that have separate, special purpose labs often
cannot afford to provision all of the labs sufficiently to meet
peak demands and to stand-up all of the products intended
production configurations or topologies.
Labs that are not fully equipped to satisfy peak demands may
impact the agility of an organization and its ability to deliver
products and services on-time. When a developer or tester
has to wait because there are not enough lab resources
or when there is resource contention the entire delivery
time-line is delayed. Some surveys have reported that lab
staff wait-times average 3 weeks to get all the resources
they need before they can even begin to perform a test.
For example, one study “Virtual and Cloud-Based Labs”,
2014, Voke Inc. reported that over 62% of development
work is routinely delayed due to lack of readily available lab
resources. This delay is compounded when a problem is
found and the lab resources are released while a fix for the
problem is determined and the appropriate change injected
into the pipeline. After the change is available then the lab
resource wait time is repeated again when it is time to verify
the change.
Once the resources are available, the time to configure the
resources according to the required test configuration or
topology can easily take 50% of the available lab time which
causes further delays. After a test is complete, restoring the
test configuration to the starting state suitable for the next
user can take 20% of the available test time which causes
even further delays.
Frequently the total delays across all the lab users involved
in the entire pipeline are accumulated are a major cause for
product release slippages.
These delays can be significant enough to cost a company its
market position and reputation.
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Product quality
Customersperceive quality as a
combination of product performance
and supplier service.
Performance of a product is relative
to the production environment that
customers use. Products that work
well in one environment may fail in a
different environment. Many products
are expected to perform in multiple
production configurations mapped to
specific customer environments. For
example, software may be expected
to perform well on different operating
system versions, devices, system
configurations and topologies. If
the chain of labs does not have
sufficient capabilities to fully replicate
any possible customer production
configurations necessary to verify a
specific change, then an undetected
fault may propagate throughout the
pipeline all the way to the customer
before it is detected.
Customers that report serious faults
perceive service quality primarily by
the MTTR -- the duration between the
time they report a problem and the
time a change is received, installed
and verified that the problem has
been corrected satisfactorily. The
time-to-market section explained how
Labs may affect the time-to-market
for changes, which includes fixes to
correct serious problems.
Capital costs
Total capital costs for all labs required
to support a product line increases
with the number of separate labs used
by the product line because each lab
desires the most up-to-date equipment
of sufficient quantity to meet peak
demands of its users and to have
sufficient component variety to stand
up legacy and current production
configurations.
Typically an organization cannot
afford to provision every lab for
peak demands and the full range
of production configurations. As a
product line grows in success, the
number of labs and lab variations
grows with it, causing an escalation of
capital requirements.
This problem may be mitigated by
specializing each lab, however, the
value of saving capital in this way
is offset by the additional operating
costs and delays caused by hand-
offs between special-purpose labs as
indicated in the time-to-market section.
Operating costs
Total operating costs for an
organization’s labs are a sum of all
labor and other operating expenses
for communication circuits, equipment
leasing, training, and facilities, across
all labs.
As a product line grows, technology
evolves, and in the case of mergers
and acquisitions the size and number
of separate labs and lab variations
grows with it, causing an escalation
of operating requirements for each
lab that cannot fully benefit from
economies of scale.
Operating expense concerns may
be mitigated by instituting expense
controls for each lab but these controls
may have the undesired side-effect
of making the lab operations less
efficient. For example, if a manager
limits the number of support staff,
and then further limits their use of
the lab facility to day-time hours
only, the resulting labor-costs saved
is now offset by under-utilization of
depreciating equipment that sits idle
during the unsupported hours and
user-delays while waiting for service,
thus creating a highly inefficient
environment
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Security and safety
As the number of special purpose
labs proliferate, security becomes a
significant concern as the labs become
increasingly difficult to manage. result
The risk of external threats increases
with the number physical and
network portals which increase
with the number of labs. Breach of
perimeter security may result in loss
of intellectual property, real property,
proprietary information, competitive
information, and personal information.
The risk of accidental or intentional
breaches from within the perimeter
of labs may also increase with the
number of labs.
The risk of security and safety
concerns increases with the number
of labs because now the complexity is
compounded with the added difficulty
of monitoring and enforcing security
and safety across multiple labs at
once, unless each has a dedicated
security and safety staff member,
typically not budgeted for in most labs.
Regulatory compliance
Audit and compliance requirements for
government regulations and industry
conformance requirements for labs
must be met for each lab. The cost of
preparing for and conducting audits,
maintaining separate compliance
records and coordinating corrective
actions for separate labs increases
with the number of labs.
These concerns can be reduced if
the labs are consolidated into a self-
service lab with pooled resources,
audit and compliance procedures.
Staff satisfaction
As the complexity of labs and the
number of labs grows, staff becomes
more stressed.
Lab administration staff is stressed
when the lab is not adequately staffed
with sufficient people, whom also must
be skilled in all of the technologies
used in the lab.
Lab users are stressed by access
delays, topology setup delays and
administration support delays.
Lab managers become stressed when
lab administration staff and lab users
are stressed and also when the lab is
unable to meet demands.
These stresses can be reduced
if the labs are made more self-
service, by pooling resources,
sharing administration staff and by
consolidating staff procedures and
training programs.
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LaaS solution blueprint This Lab-as-a-Service Solution Blueprint includes the following solution components.
Lab consolidation
Best practices
Tools
Virtual and cloud technologies
Expertise and professional services
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provide visible measures for Lab Management
Lab consolidation
One of the most compelling cases for LaaS occurs when an organization has multiple separate special purpose labs and wants to
consolidate them into one global lab or a smaller number of interconnected regional labs as shown in Figure 3: Lab Consolidation.
Flexibility for the location of the consolidated LaaS facility can save expenses afforded by lower total footprint and choice of lower
cost properties afforded by selected locations.
LaaSLab
Figure 3: Lab Consolidation
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As shown in Figure 4: Equipment Consolidation, LaaS provides benefits of economies of scale because lab components may be
shared across a wider variety of applications.
Figure 4: Lab Equipment Consolidation
As indicated in Figure 5: Lab Staff and Process Consolidation, LaaS enables lower operating costs with fewer total overhead staff.
Flexible hiring policies are now feasible because lab users do not have to reside with the lab.
Figure 5: Lab Staff and Process Consolidation
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LaaS best practices
The following are best practices for LaaS users and administration.
Best practices for LaaS users
Users access LaaS services via portals using credentials and group privileges with restrictions.
LaaS user guide information is available to all users on-line for all LaaS services and procedures.
LaaS resources are used remotely to save time for users who don’t need to leave their workstations to use the lab resources.
LaaS users have access to all types of test tools and system under test variations necessary for all types of tests and
topologies.
LaaS users have the ability to remotely reserve, configure, activate, use and release lab resources and topologies for which
they have privileges.
LaaS users have access to all possible production configurations enabling more thorough testing at each stage of the lifecycle.
LaaS scheduling mechanisms reduce resource scheduling conflicts for users.
Automation and orchestration mechanisms are available to user to reduce time-to-setup and tear-down of lab configurations
and test topologies.
LaaS users are provided real-time status information regarding the health of the lab resources and topologies that they are
using and any administration information that is relevant to user activities.
An application supports LaaS users to report problems and suggestions and to track status of responses.
LaaS users are hired according to skills rather than whether they reside close to the lab.
LaaS user satisfaction is measured and suggestions and corrective actions are addressed.
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Best practices for LaaS administration
LaaS is operated and supported on a 24/7 basis.
LaaS administrators have the ability to assign and modify credentials and privileges for LaaS users and user groups.
LaaS administrators have the ability to add or delete resources and topologies available to LaaS users and user groups.
Labs are located to save expenses for total footprint and operations costs including cost of security.
Enhanced perimeter security is installed and managed for all physical entrances and communication portals at all LaaS
perimeter boundaries.
Inventory management is assisted with tools to efficiently manage and maintain inventory of all lab components. Includes auto-
discovery of inventory changes.
Planning and implementation procedures are in place for commissioning and managing new components and retirement of
obsolete lab components.
Usage data is tracked for start/stop duration for user session, resources and topologies. Privilege-based, this data is visible to
administrators while only selected data is visible to users and user groups.
If LaaS users are charged for using the lab services then security, accounting, licensing systems and procedures are in
accordance with government regulations and applicable laws. An example reference:
https://www.sba.gov/content/online-business-law
Technology for tools, infrastructures and any system under test is kept up to date with latest innovations and versions.
Legacy versions of any product or tool as needed to manage supported legacy versions.
Capital expenses are controlled efficiently by sharing lab resources, tools, infrastructure and systems under test.
Lab metrics provide data for measuring KPIs, SLAs and supporting continuous improvements.
The lab has excellent reliable fault-tolerant infrastructure.
Product innovations provide product features that enable remote operation.
Disaster prevention and recovery procedures are in place and periodically tested.
https://www.sba.gov/content/online-business-law
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LaaS tools
As illustrated in Figure 6: LaaS Tools provide services needed for both authorized users and administrators of LaaS remotely and
securely from their computer.
Build LaaS LaaSTest
ConfigureHelp
MonitorReserve
Login
Figure 6: LaaS Tools
LaaS user tools
Users require simple-to-use interactive GUI or command-
line controls and displays to operate the lab in a manual or
automated fashion. Presentation of lab resources as drag/
drop/connect diagrams within a well-designed topology
editor is preferred.
Collaboration and communication features enable users to
share information with each other and administration staff.
All commands and responses available from any GUI need
to be also available from a RESTful API to support workflow
automation. Automation of workflows for both users and
administration staff speed up repetitive tasks. Easy-to-learn
and use task automation creation tools are needed to support
creation of new automated tasks. Automated workflows
such as scripts, programs or other automated task formats
need to be stored in a version management system to ensure
each version can be maintained according to best practices.
The way in which lab resources (E.g. SUTs and tools) are
connected, as in a computer network, whether physical
or virtual, is called a topology. Topology management
orchestration tools provide the ability to create, reserve, seize,
and use an entire topology of lab resources when reserved,
and release them when no longer needed.
Sharing features include resource reservations that may be
event-based (such as the availability of an SUT) or calendar-
based (such as a future time-slot). Abstract topologies
should be supported so that any resource that satisfies
the requirements according to predefined attributes can
be substituted. Topologies need to be saved in a version-
managed database and can be retrieved by reference on-
demand by any type of consumer that has access privileges.
Service requests for manual connections need to be
supported for connections that cannot be automated. Manual
workflows should create user and administration notifications
and documented for audit purposes.
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Test orchestration tools include the execution of automated
test cases for a selected topology or configuration, reporting
of test results and other information required for test analysis.
The integration of test tools with topologies orchestration is
required to achieve a fully automated environment. Any
test case should be linked to an abstract topology so that the
topology can be invoked when a test is executed. Results
(Verdict reports, log reports, alerts, status displays) need to be
recorded automatically for all authorized stakeholders to use.
The capability to manage and control power and other
utilities may be important for some test and administration
cases. Capabilities needed include: display/update
power configurations, activate/ deactivate power outlets,
connections and features, configure logs and reports.
Test tool resources are required to match the broadest
purpose of the LaaS. This may include functional test tools,
software analysis tools, traffic or data generators, protocol
monitoring and analysis tools, impairment injection tools, log
analysis tools and tools to tap and monitor communication
circuits and protocols.
System Under Test (SUT) resources may be physical or
virtualized systems that are orchestrated via control plane
ports. Capabilities needed include: display/update SUT
configurations, activate/ deactivate SUT ports and features,
configure logs and reports.
Data management capabilities are needed for all of the data
requirements of lab management. This includes the ability to
create, import/export, query, filter, retrieve, activate/deactivate
and update/rollback user data and system software. All data
and programs should be version managed. The following
classes of repositories need to be considered:
Reservation System: Event or schedule based, filters,
workgroup
SUT repository: Repository for SUT image and
configuration files
Test Repository: test cases and other artifacts needed for
testing
Results Repository: test results including verdicts reports
and logs
Administration Repository: User data, scripts and other
tools used by administrators
Lab-as-a-Service Repository: resource metering and
billing data
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LaaS administration tools
Administration users are a specific class of interactive or automated users that have special privileges and rights to control and
monitor the configuration of the lab systems including management of user and group privileges and lab infrastructure expansion
and maintenance activities.
LaaS administrators require LaaS administration services available from the desktop.
Tools for initializing and maintaining a current up-to-date lab
inventory are required. All resources including SUTs, tools
and connections need to be included. The inventory for
every resource in the lab should include a clear identifier,
location, how-to access information and state information
such as version and warranty expiration dates. Inventory
management orchestration capability should support
resource discovery and updates, manual inventory editing,
inventory queries, filters, displays and reports. The ability to
import/export inventory information from/to spreadsheets
or database formats is preferred.
Status information is needed to determine if a resource
is operational, in-use and fault information needs to be
available if a resource is off-line or failing.
Common and Workgroup designations for all resources
is recommended which allows some certain resources to
be visible to only designated work groups. Lab resource
restrictions such sharing portions of a resource by multiple
simultaneous users (e.g. shared ports on a multi-port
network device) need to be defined.
The work efficiency of lab administrators is dependent
on the orchestration capabilities available to automate
their administration tasks. This includes creation and
management of user access controls and methods for
user-groups and resource-pool management of lab
resources. Automation of repetitive tasks such as new
systems provisioning, and system back-ups are important.
Administration alerts and dashboards to display SLA
thresholds and KPIs are important. Diagnostics, disaster
prevention and recovery tools procedures should be
automated. If the lab is a Lab-as-a-Service then resource
metering and billing administration is required if users are
charged for every lab resource utilization
System connection tools include switching infrastructure
capabilities (physical and virtual) to support dynamic
topologies and data plane connections. Capabilities
needed include: display/update connection configurations,
systems and ports, activate/ deactivate ports, connections
and features, configure logs and reports.
Administration dashboards need to display SLA thresholds
and KPIs including report utilization of SUTs and test
tools systems, port, port groups and connections. Alert
mechanisms are needed to alert administrators in the
event of a critical or pending failure.
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Virtual and cloud technologies
As indicated in Figure 7: LaaS Virtual and Cloud Technologies any application level lab component may be virtualized and
operated in the form of a private, public or hybrid cloud architecture.
ApplicationsOperating System
Virtual Switch
ApplicationsOperating System
ApplicationsOperating System
Test
BuildSUT
MonitorOrchestrate
RepoReport
Figure 7: LaaS Virtual and Cloud Technologies
There are many advantages of virtualizing lab components:
Operating system, application stacks and configuration
data may be saved and restored upon demand
The physical plant can be re-used for any variety of
applications
The applications can be networked using virtual switches
The administration procedures can be made common
Easy to replicate systems and topologies
Easy to back-up and restore systems and topologies
Entire systems may be version managed
Easy to orchestrate the entire environment
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Expertise and professional services
Experienced experts can assess an organization’s LaaS goals, practices, and tools and recommend implementation plans and help
manage the implementation of changes needed to accomplish best practices with minimal chance of failure and minimize costly
disruptions. When planning LaaS projects Figure 8: LaaS Professional Services should be considered.
Best practices assessment Analyze existing practices relative to best practices, determine GAPs and priorities for improvement
Orchestration Determine automation and orchestration capabilities and opportunities to improve automation and orchestration
Virtualization Determine current virtualization capabilities and strategies to improve use of virtualized resources
Goals and measures Business level goals for the lab, ROI and KPIs that can be used to track progress to goals
Dashboard, data and visualization Data visualization capabilities and opportunities via dashboards or other data visualization tools
Documentation and training Documentation and training for users and admin staff
Project management Determine resources, tasks, and schedules, manage execution, monitor and report ROI and KPIs
Figure 8: LaaS Professional Services
Best practices assessment: Service assesses current best practices level, GAPs, goals and recommend solutions to accomplish
goals.
Orchestration: Service assesses orchestration requirements, current orchestration tools and capabilities, goals and recommends
solutions to accomplish goals.
Virtualization: Service assesses virtualization requirements, current virtualization capabilities, and goals and recommends solutions
to accomplish goals.
Goals and measures: Service assesses Metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and recommends tracking tools to help
measure the performance of the LaaS and to provide data for continuous improvement planning.
Dashboard and data virtualization: Service assesses of all types of dashboard and data virtualization requirements, current
capabilities, goals and solutions to accomplish goals and provide KPI tracking tools.
Documentation and training: Service assesses documentation and training requirements, current capabilities, and goals and
recommends solutions to accomplish goals.
Project management: Service assesses resources, tools, tasks and schedules to optimize LaaS projects.
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It is recommended that LaaS projects be implemented in phases as indicated in Figure 9: LaaS Project Three-Step Process where
each phase of the implementation is focused on items that eliminate bottlenecks and reduce the GAP between current practices
and best practices as determined by the best practices GAP assessment. This approach will not only ensure the highest priority
improvements are implemented first, but will do so with minimal disruptions to current lab operations.
ImplementationAssessment
■ Goals■ Practices■ Technology■ Plan
■ POC■ Pre-production■ Production
■ Training■ Monitoring■ Support
Operations
1 2 3
Figure 9: LaaS Project Three-Step Process
KPIs and SLAs
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that help monitor the health of the LaaS in a format suitable for administration and
LaaS leaders. The specific KPI and the way they KPIs are presented will vary depending on organization preferences. No two
organizations are the same, however the following are examples of measureable KPI’s that are often useful and can be derived
from LaaS deployments:
Average Wait times for all users or user groups to access lab resources
Percent availability (up-time) of lab resources
Time to setup topologies requested by users or groups of users
Utilization of each lab resource or type of lab resource
Statistics such as average user login times
% of lab resources which are virtualized
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are metrics that quantify the expected services that LaaS offers to users from an individual user
perspective. Like KPIs, SLAs may vary according to an organization’s preferences. Often the SLAs are similar to the KPIs except
reported on a user basis.
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Benefits LaaS when optimized according to this LaaS Solution Blueprint provides the following benefits:
Reduced time-to-market
Reduced inefficiency between
QA and development is realized
because the test topologies and
resources are equivalent.
Reduced time-to-setup and tear-
down lab configurations and test
topologies saves time.
More reliable operations result
because centralized labs afford
better infrastructure.
Improved product quality
Product quality is improved because
all users have access to all possible
production configurations enabling
more thorough testing at each stage
of the lifecycle.
Product innovations to improve
remote product operations typically
result when operated in remote labs.
These innovations are usually good
for customers operations also.
Reduced capital costs
Reduced capital expenses are
afforded by sharing enables
efficient use of lab resources, tools,
infrastructure and systems under
test.
Smaller holding time on lab
resources when not in use
eliminates idle time of equipment.
Reduce operating costs
Reduced operating expenses
are afforded by pooling lab
administration resources.
Being flexible with lab location can
save expenses afforded by lower
total footprint and choice of lower
cost property areas.
Economies of scale are realized via
consolidated lab operations enables
improved 24/7 lab operations and
more sophisticated lab management
capabilities.
Improved lab metrics provide
data for measured continuous
improvements.
Lower communication costs result
when fewer high speed links are
required to service the fewer
number of labs.
Security and safety improvements
Enhanced security is realized when
there is a common perimeter, so that
fewer external interfaces are needed
for protection and when labs can be
located in the most secure locations.
Improved disaster prevention and
recovery procedures are realized
because the procedures are
concentrated into a centralized
administration.
Regulatory compliance
Consolidated and enhanced
procedures are afforded by pooling
resources and automation.
Improved technology is afforded
because of economies of scale.
Improved staff satisfaction
The ability to use lab resources
remotely saves time for users
who don’t need to leave their
workstations to utilize lab resources.
Efficient scheduling reduces
time-consuming and frustrating
scheduling conflicts.
Flexible hiring policies that allow
remote users, because lab users do
not have to reside with the lab.
When labs are consolidated, lower
operating costs afforded by fewer
overhead staff.
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SummaryWhether an organization is just getting started with their first LaaS experience, currently employs LaaS practices but wants to
expand, or improve the efficiency of their LaaS environment, this LaaS Solution Blueprint provides a comprehensive framework and
an approach towards implementing a best practices solution.
Anyone considering implementing LaaS can utilize this LaaS Solution Blueprint to accomplish:
Lab consolidation
Best practices
Tools
Virtual and cloud technologies
Expertise and professional services
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
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References
Virtual and Cloud-Based Labs, 2014, Voke Inc.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) guides.
http://www.itinfo.am/eng/information-technology-infrastructure-library-guide/
On-line business laws. https://www.sba.gov/content/online-business-law
Spirent www.spirent.com
Spirent CLEAR Solutions http://www.spirent.com/Solutions
Spirent Automation http://www.spirent.com/Solutions/Automation
Spirent Velocity http://www.spirent.com/~/media/Datasheets/Broadband/PAB/CLEAR/Spirent_Velocity_datasheet.pdf
Anyone who has comments or suggestions related to this white paper please email your comments to the following link:
http://www.spirent.com/About-Us/email
http://www.itinfo.am/eng/information-technology-infrastructure-library-guide/https://www.sba.gov/content/online-business-lawhttp://www.spirent.comhttp://www.spirent.com/Solutionshttp://www.spirent.com/Solutions/Automationhttp://www.spirent.com/~/media/Datasheets/Broadband/PAB/CLEAR/Spirent_Velocity_datasheet.pdfhttp://www.spirent.com/About-Us/email
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Acronyms, abbreviations, and definitions
API Application Programming Interface
BDD Behavior Driven Design
CapEx Capital Expense
CD Continuous Delivery
CI Continuous Integration
CLEAR Collaborative, Leadership, Exploration, Acceleration, Realization
CT Continuous Test
DevOps Development Operations
DUT Device Under Test
EC2 Amazon Cloud Service
EVCI Efficient Virtualized Continuous Integration
GUI Graphical User Interface
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service
ITIL Information Technology Infrastructure Library
ILO iTest Lab Optimizer
iTest Spirent Capture Execute Report test tool
ITO Infrastructure Test Optimization
Jenkins extendable open source continuous integration server
Jira issue tracking product
KPI Key Performance Indicator
KVM Hypervisor
LaaS Lab as a Service
OpenStack Open source cloud computing software platform
OpEx Operating Expense
PaaS Platform as a Service
QA Quality Assurance
QEMU Hypervisor
RESTful APIs that adhere to the REST architectural constraints
ROI Return On Investment
SLA Service Level Agreement
STC Spirent Test Center
SUT System Under Test
TaaS Testing as a Service
TDD Test Driven Design
Velocity Spirent Lab Management tool
VM Virtual Machine
VMware Company which produces VSphere
VSphere server virtualization platform
Xen Hypervisor
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© 2015 Spirent. All Rights Reserved.
All of the company names and/or brand names and/or product names referred to in this document, in particular, the name “Spirent”
and its logo device, are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Spirent plc and its subsidiaries, pending registration in
accordance with relevant national laws. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
of Spirent. The information in this document is believed to be accurate and reliable; however, Spirent assumes no responsibility or
liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the document. Rev A. 08/15
A Solution Blueprint for Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS)
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White Paper
About SpirentSpirent provides software solutions to
high-tech equipment manufacturers
and service providers that simplify and
accelerate device and system testing.
Developers and testers create and
share automated tests that control and
analyze results from multiple devices,
traffic generators, and applications while
automatically documenting each test with
pass-fail criteria. With Spirent solutions,
companies can move along the path toward
automation while accelerating QA cycles,
reducing time to market, and increasing
the quality of released products. Industries
such as communications, aerospace and
defense, consumer electronics, automotive,
industrial, and medical devices have
benefited from Spirent products.
For more informationTo learn more about Spirent’s test and lab
automation solutions, visit www.spirent.
com/CLEAR.
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