Most of the tools for service virtualization cost money and need to be licensed. But in the open-source tools category, we have many great tools for mocking services. When we say “mocking,” you should know that it is different from “virtualization” in a small way.
So, I’ll tell you what’s different about the two.
Stubs and mocks are often used to “skip” system parts that aren’t available. Service virtualization, on the other hand, lets team members simulate environments (or parts of a software system) and share how they work with the rest of the team.
So, compared to simple stubs and mocks, Service virtualization may mean much more realistic behavior.
Top 7 Service Virtualization Tools
An in-depth comparison of the leading virtualization tools is provided here.
#1) ReadyAPI Virtualization
SmartBear ReadyAPI has a tool called “ReadyAPI Virtualization.” ReadyAPI has many tools for testing APIs. With Service Virtualization, ReadyAPI Virtualization will be able to do API Mocking. It has high-performance routing features that can simulate traffic and isolate problems.
You can use an API definition to do a virtual service or record and use an existing service. It lets you share and deploy virtual services, manage and create fake data, and share and deploy virtual services.
With ReadyAPI Virtualization, you can set up specific behaviors in any way you want. You can limit the bandwidth, set error conditions, and set the response time.
Pros:
- With ReadyAPI Virtualization, you can test in any way you want.
- The ability to make data on the spot.
- Sharing and deploying virtual services on local machines or in a public or private cloud is flexible.
- A virtual service is easy to set up.
Cons:
- Reviews say it can be a bit slow and that the User Interface could be better.
#2) CA Service Virtualization (CA LISA)
This is a product that can be bought from ITKO, which is a company owned by CA Technologies.
CA LISA service virtualization simulates the unavailable, missing, or expensive parts of a software system across the SDLC. This lets development, testing, and all the other teams work in parallel, which speeds up application delivery, constantly improves quality, cuts time to market, and reduces overall cost and risk.
It lets you test and verify anything anytime during the development process. You can find mistakes quickly and fix them before they go into production.
Based on what real users have said, this is the best tool for service virtualization. It cuts system wait time by 96%, reduces errors in production by 35%, and speeds up delivery by 50%.
Compared to other tools that do the same thing, this is very expensive to buy and use.
Pros:
- Setting up virtual services is a very quick process.
- Giving XML request/response pairs is all it takes to do a virtual service.
- It’s very helpful to record and automatically learn how to respond.
- CA LISA is easy to set up and has no problems with stability. It is a platform that is very stable.
- Great help with both customer service and technical issues.
- It can be easily added to your CI tool and test automation tool.
Cons:
- There’s nothing bad about it. However, VS Easy isn’t perfect and could stand some enhancements. It could be made with some checks, so it doesn’t overwrite someone else’s virtual service by accident.
- A tool with a lot of weight. But again, this will depend on what each person needs.
- In the early versions of this tool, there was a problem with memory leaks.
- UI testing needs improvement.
#3) Micro Focus Service Virtualization
Micro Focus service virtualization, which used to be called HP Service Virtualization, is a tool you can buy.
It is an application and data simulation software that lets the development and testing teams mimic how a service works so that the delivery doesn’t suffer if they don’t have access to the production systems.
This tool makes development faster because of its mock virtualization feature. It makes the organization less dependent on the environment and saves money. This product has a good long-term return on investment.
When you have a lot of web services to test, this product is worth getting. It might cost less to use the server version.
Pros:
- Great ability to grow.
- Easy to put into action.
- In their design studio, it’s easy to make simulations.
- Step-by-step wizard. No need to know how to code.
- Can deal with changes on the fly.
- Supports multiple technologies.
- It has very useful logging features.
- Web-based.
- It’s easy to connect to testing apps from Microfocus, like LoadRunner, ALM, Performance center, and UFT.
- Low TCO (total cost of ownership)
Cons:
- Also it uses Excel, which is hard for bigger services to handle for it would have been better if it could have been built on SQL.
- It does not work with shared schema. Each user needs his or her SQL server database.
- Could have looked and felt better and more like me.
Note: Micro Focus now owns Hewlett Packard Enterprise Software. So, don’t think that HPE Service Virtualization and Micro Focus Service Virtual are the same tools. They are the same.
#4) IBM Green Hat Rational Test Virtualization Server
With IBM RTVS (also known as “green hat”), you can test your software more smartly.
You can make virtual services for parts of the system that aren’t working or haven’t been built yet. Start testing with the virtual services and look at the dashboard to see how things are going. It pulls data from production and uses it for testing to ensure that the data is accurate.
It can run performance tests and integration tests automatically. This makes it easier to find problems early and fix them quickly. The IBM Rational Test Workbench comes with the RTVS tool.
When a big global investment bank used IBM RTVS, software testing took 11 days to 13.3 hours. One of the clients who used IBM RTVS could double the amount of work they got done.
It is not that expensive compared to the best commercial tools for service virtualization.
Pros:
- Increases the number of tests and lowers the risk.
- Test more often and earlier.
- Fix problems when it costs less.
- Quickly tell the team working on new scenarios what you think of them.
- Services for validation, like SWIFT, XSD, etc., are easy to use and very helpful.
- Support for IBM MQ that can’t be beaten.
Cons:
- Depend on different patches.
- Features like reporting and dashboards could be made better.
#5) Tricentis TOSCA Orchestrated Service Virtualization
Orchestrated Service Virtualization (OSV), made by an Austrian company called Tricentis, helps access dependent systems more even so that tests can be run completely, reliably, and continuously. This tool helps keep testing on schedule and cuts down on testing costs.
It acts out the interactions needed for testing and automatically learns how AUT and its constrained dependencies should talk to each other by listening to their conversations. Also, It offers test-driven service virtualization and message validation that is done automatically.
This tool is great for designing software tests independently of the available parts. Using this TOSCA suite, some of the best companies in the world have reached test automation rates of 90% or more.
Pros:
- Supports many definition languages, message formats, transport protocols, and standards.
- Enables Agile, continuous testing.
- Helps firms enhance, organize, and automate their software testing processes.
- Removes bottlenecks in testing.
- Makes intelligent test stubs quickly.
- Integration with Tosca Testsuite is very good.
Cons:
- You should carefully choose the tool based on what your business needs.
- Some businesses have had trouble using this tool to lower business risk because they didn’t have a good testing method or way to handle test data.
- Small businesses can’t use it.
- This tool is not supported in India right now.
#6) Soap UI
SoapUI by Smartbear is the most well-known and useful open-source tool for testing SOAP and REST APIs worldwide. SOAP Service Mocking, part of SoapUI Pro, makes a copy of the environment that works just like the original.
When you can’t use the real service, this can help. SOAPUI Mock Services are very useful for things like rapid prototyping of web services, client testing or development, and test-driven development (TDD) (test-driven development). It can help development teams mock up Web services more quickly.
In 2014, the Jolt Awards for “The Best Testing Tools” went to SOAP UI.
Pros:
- User-friendly GUI.
- SOAP UI mock is easy to set up on the client side.
- With a soapUI mock service, you can send responses using different methods, such as cycling, random, or deterministic.
- Possible to auto-generate an initial mock?
Cons:
- This tool doesn’t have enough instructions.
- Customer service sometimes takes too long to respond.
- If you have never used a simulation tool before, doing a mock service in SOAP UI can be hard.
#7) Parasoft Virtualize
Parasoft Virtualize is a service virtualization product that can build, deploy, and manage replicated test environments to help with software development and testing. These environments can mimic the behavior of dependent resources that can’t be reached, aren’t available, or are hard to set up for development or testing.
Parasoft Virtualize copies the behavior of systems that a developer or tester can’t directly access, such as mainframes, databases, web services, ERP systems, third-party information systems, and any other systems that depend on them.
This product is used with hardware/OS virtualization to give developers and testers access to the resources they need to do their jobs faster, better, and earlier. Its technologies are used for continuous delivery, integration, and release. These are all ways to automate continuous testing.
The cost of setting up this tool for the first time is a bit high. But it is a cost-effective solution in the long run because it is easy to create, deploy, maintain, and manage complex virtual assets.
When clients use this tool, their SDLC goes much faster, which makes it easier for them to get things to the testing team quickly.
Pros:
- Service definitions, like WSDL, make it easy to make virtual assets quickly.
- The shared data can be used in other areas, such as test automation or test data management.
- You don’t need to know much about technology to use this tool.
- A powerful visual interface that makes it easy to create and manage virtual services.
Cons:
- After each update, the virtual asset needs to be set up again.
- Changes could be made to how reports about the test environments are made.
- It only has permissions based on roles. It could also have authorization based on data.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about the different tools for service virtualization. Remember that each tool’s ROI will change based on your specific business and technical requirements and approach. So, you should choose the right tool carefully after figuring out what you need.
Also, most commercial tools have different versions depending on whether you are a single user, a small business, or a large enterprise. Therefore, one of the most crucial factors to consider when deciding on a tool’s version is the company’s size.
