API load testing just got a big upgrade. Before I get to the geeky details, let’s zoom out a bit.

Have you ever run a load test? I mean a serious one, not just a checkbox before a release or as a backlog item to that cool thing you’re shipping. The world doesn’t auto-scale like you think it does, and people don’t always use your API in predictable amounts. Buy a performance tester a beer some time, they’ll tell you to load testing is a litmus test for success or failure in production. They also LOVE metrics.

Why is API Load Testing so Important?

Performance has become a top-level concern for everyone these days. Why? Because we live in the internet age and people are impatient. Speed matters to consumers. The more people there are, the slower your existing capacity will be, so you scale up your capacity by adding servers.

But that presents challenges too: load balancing, SSL termination, reverse proxy routing, geo-caching, data replication. As your scale grows, so also do the mechanisms required to manage that scale.

So after building our systems and scaling them, the best validation is to quickly load test them. We present them with a challenge that simulates what we know exists in real-world systems. Thanks to load testing, we have a relatively good picture of what our APIs can handle and where we know we’ll need to scale up again.

You Say “Quickly” Load Test: Can You Show Me?

Of course! Here’s a video of turning an API (functional) test case into a cloud-based API load test:

What Can Ready! API Do for Me?

Well, say you need to run a test that takes a lot of resources (i.e. hardware) to pull off or you need the traffic to come from multiple locations? That’s where LoadUI NG Pro remote agents come to the rescue. You can quickly build a load test and then use your Amazon EC2 credentials to automatically deploy however many remote agents are necessary for your particular load requirements.

LoadUI NG Pro cloud deployment also provides you an estimate of the cost your load test will incur, based on live prices from Amazon EC2, so that you stay under budget and know what to expect.

Where Can I Get LoadUI NG Pro?

If you’re new to Ready! API, the easiest way to get started is to download a trial, which comes with a 2 week trial key. A few moments later, when you’re all set up, you can start right in on a new load test.

If you already use SoapUI Pro or any tool in the Ready! API platform, just go to the downloads center and find the appropriate installer for your machine.

What is this Ready! API Thing You Speak of?

It’s a platform of API tools, the best one for in our opinion, will all sorts of other good things mixed in:

The lifecycle of your APIs is really important to us; that’s why SmartBear provides tools for:

• Design: Swagger & SwaggerHub
• Functional testing: SoapUI NG
• Load testing: LoadUI NG
• Security: Secure Pro
• API virtualization: ServiceV
• API monitoring: AlertSite

We tie these things together through the Ready! API platform, including integrations to API management platforms and other lifecycle tools, to help you bring high-quality APIs to production on time and with minimal risk.

Don’t take our word for it. Try LoadUI NG Pro out for yourself. We can’t wait to hear from you about it!