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    HP Extends Service Virtualization Push

    Building and testing applications in the age of the cloud is becoming increasingly complex. Not only are applications more integrated with each other, testing applications that are dependent on other applications is nearly impossible when most of those services are being run in production environments often managed by a third party.

    To address this issue, more IT organizations have begun to embrace service virtualization, which provides a way to emulate other applications for the purpose of testing the performance of an application that is dependent on the availability of that service.

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    To help IT organizations expand the applicability of service virtualization, Hewlett-Packard today announced expanded support for Java Database Connectivity, IBM WebSphere MQ middleware and an improved implementation of TCP/IP framework. According to Kelly Emo, director of product marketing for HP Software, the enhancements included in HP Service Virtualization 2.3 are primarily aimed at extending service virtualization capabilities to legacy applications. While the concept of service virtualization has been used fairly widely to emulate Web applications, Emo says the complexity associated with building composite applications inside the enterprise has created a need to apply service virtualization to existing legacy applications that can’t be readily accessed on production servers.

    In an age where applications are now essentially borderless, the dependencies between applications both inside and outside the enterprise have never been greater. That makes building new applications an exceedingly complex endeavor even in an age where integrating applications has never been simpler.

    While still a relatively nascent technology, service virtualization should allow IT organizations to reduce a lot of the complexity associated with building and testing new applications. Of course, there’s no perfect substitute for testing against a production application. But in a world where accessing those applications on production servers is becoming more and more difficult, service virtualization represents the next best thing.

    Mike Vizard
    Mike Vizard
    Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a contributor to publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

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