iTKO, a provider of testing and validation solutions for SOA-enabled distributed enterprise applications, has introduced a new release of its flagship LISA product suite, which includes enhanced virtualization support. The new features in version 4.6 of LISA are targeted at helping customers who are experiencing greater pressure to deliver software faster, and with fewer resources and lower costs while also maintaining quality levels, the vendor says.
"A classic problem-more and more the case as time goes on-is that data is no longer in one big data model," John Michelsen, CEO of iTKO, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "There is no longer one big application with one big fat database underneath it. Instead, it is a set of distributed services that have associated with them distributed databases throughout an environment. And one of the big challenges is managing data consistency across them, from a development and test point of view. We can't assume DBA easy access and control over data scenarios anymore."
LISA version 4.6 provides what Michelsen describes as third-generation service virtualization for rapid simulation of complete test environments. The solution enables automated modeling and simulation of inaccessible or unavailable IT resources into virtual test environments for development and testing purposes, providing realistic behaviors and stateful transactions similar to actual production environments. LISA virtualization can be applied to technology environments including mainframes and remote third party systems, and version 4.6 improvements enable faster and more accurate creation of virtual test environments, and the ability to virtualize a broader array of IT resources.
"We provide for virtualizing at either the application level or at the data level," says Michelsen. "When we say 'virtualize,' we capture and we create essentially simulators for that data, and the goal of that is to decouple all of these different data systems-and it works very effectively for customers."
The latest release of LISA also accelerates the process of testing and ensuring quality for rich Internet-based applications, including detailed requirements validation for Java Swing, Flash, AJAX, Flex and ActiveX. New browser-native testing controls enable LISA testers to verify that these applications function as expected in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and other delivery methods.
The new release also offers increased governance and policy validation support for distributed composite applications, including SOA, BPM, cloud and others, supporting the enforcement and verification of policies and service-level agreements by validating business outcomes and results, using event-based triggers such as service publishing, or validating continuously while in production. LISA validation tests can be launched natively within governance infrastructures and registry/repositories such as HP Systinet, Software AG's CentraSite, SOA Software Workbench, TIBCO ActiveMatrix, and SAP NetWeaver. For more information, go here.