Getting started with cloud automation

A mobile cloud tool is a platform that allows testers from varying geographic locations to access and test real mobile devices spread over different locations via a network such as the Internet or intranet. Basically, a cloud tool provides real-time access to mobile devices connected to real mobile networks through a web interface or a thin client within client-server architecture.

In the following figure, you can see that with a cloud-based tool, different teams from various geographic locations can access the same set of devices, which can themselves be distributed in various geographic locations as per project needs. Since the devices are connected over the cloud, it is very simple to capture mobile application performance data also and, hence, these tools are also commonly used for performance testing along with mobile functional and automation tools.

Devices are connected with device racks that contain device cradles. A commonly used device cradle...