Throughout the incredible journey of the telecom OSS/BSS sector over
the last 10 years, VanillaPlus has remained a reliable source of both key
news but also informative, objective and thought-provoking assessments of
the key trends which have shaped our industry. I am looking forward to
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phases of the telecoms OSS/BSS market evolutions.
Kieran Moynihan
Vice President & CTO Telecoms
IBM Tivoli Division
Launch of Test Automation Alliance led by Spirent
2008-06-24 16:56:55
Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), a global provider of performance analysis and service management solutions, has announced the formation of the Test Automation Alliance (TAA), an "ecosystem" of best-in-class testing companies focused on improving productivity across the entire telecom product development and service deployment life cycle. This alliance is the first of its kind to promote a common vision enabling service providers and network equipment manufacturers to optimise lab resources through advanced automation.Achieving seamless, straightforward, sustainable and cost effective test automation is a significant challenge for lab managers. TAA offers a unique framework called Automation Continuum™ which integrates best-in-class test automation technologies such as lab management, configuration management, test authoring and test management.
Members of the alliance include EdenTree Technologies, FanFare and MRV. These companies have a track record of delivering automation technology and are committed to leveraging their combined expertise to advance the Automation Continuum.
Spirent TestCenter™ offers enhanced testing productivity by covering a broad range of network technologies from Layer 2 to Layer 7 for LAN, Enterprise, Metropolitan, Carrier and Broadband Access networks and their devices – all on a single platform. EdenTree provides a software platform that delivers a dynamic lab environment to optimise equipment usage, sharing and tracking. Fanfare's test authoring and test management tools iTest™ Team and iTest™ Personal eliminate the need for manual and repetitive testing tasks. While MRV brings a comprehensive set of physical layer tools that enable test automation of the physical layer and facilitates remote testing, reduces cable-related test errors and allows test equipment to be shared between multiple testers.
“The Test Automation Alliance challenges the status quo and redefines testing as a continuum that integrates best-in-class lab testing tools to create a holistic approach to lab automation,” said Elisabeth Rainge, director of Network Software at IDC. “It focuses on the requirements of service providers and network equipment manufacturers to accelerate the deployment of new services and products as the testing cycles have begun to exceed development cycles.”
Test automation traditionally is developed and supported with in-house solutions that require labs to shift highly skilled test operators from testing and troubleshooting to creating and supporting complex in-house test automation environments. Today, automation technologies are highly advanced and much more cost effective to deploy, which minimises the need for in-house solutions. The Automation Continuum enables test labs to either choose from a suite of device-agnostic, best-in-class tools targeted at advancing a specific area of their existing automation framework or purchase a complete test automation framework. No matter what level of automation the test labs have deployed, the alliance enables a continuum in automation advancements.
Filed under: Company News Test & Measurement