As happens with the introduction of new tools and devices, when you solve one problem in testing, a secondary problem arises that needs a new solution. The testing model should reply on applications rather than having to worry about physical hardware and ongoing maintenance. It’s becoming more important than ever for IT to maintain control over time and productivity.

Debugging takes up valuable time that developers could be using to focus on their applications. Selenium-based test cloud from Sauce Labs is one of the testing tools that make it easy for companies to simplify and improve the cross-browser testing process for development and QA teams.

One such beneficiary is Okta, provider of provides enterprise-grade identity management service, that started using a Sauce Labs’ Selenium-based test cloud, resulting in boosting developer productivity by 80 percent, while shortening Okta’s key test suite from 24 hours to 10 minutes.

“Working with Sauce Labs means we’re better able to stay at the forefront of development innovation,” said Denali Lumma, quality engineering manager at Okta. “We are growing and adding new features and products rapidly and need a product that can test them in a matter of hours or minutes, not days. Sauce Labs gave us everything we were looking for in a testing solution.”

Cloud-based web application testing solutions provider Sauce Labs provides a variety of opportunities to run tests for web applications on both desktops and mobile in a range of environments without the need to install a large number of different operating systems and browsers. Sauce Labs test environment works with nearly 100 browser combinations. The company recently announced the availability of its Appium on Sauce mobile application test cloud on the Android OS platform.

Automated testing is doubly challenging because teams need to build and maintain a testing environment and on top of that, building tests can require significant technical skill. Prior to working with Sauce Labs, developers of Okta were using a local Selenium RC server running browser tests that resulted in developers a very low ROI and spending up to 50 percent of their time on test debugging.

Selenium’s success came from its ability to test videos, screenshots and logging capabilities, which resulted in a huge increase in developer productivity. These tests are deployed and run in the cloud.

“In deploying Sauce Labs we have reduced the time it takes to just debug Selenium from three days to three hours,” said Lumma. “Moving our testing system to the cloud also reduced the cost of hardware, electricity and labor. The biggest ROI increase, however, was in developer productivity.”