Apica has released Apica ProxySniffer 5.0, introducing new capabilities, such as load clustering and multithread support, to give users even more control over their load testing scenarios and help them pinpoint performance problems down to the network and infrastructure layers.

Apica ProxySniffer supports a wide range of web standards and authentication methods to automatically generate custom load test scripts and scenarios by recording real end-user behavior with no programming required.

The new version offers users the ability to customize tests, cluster loads for ultimate scaling, and integrate with Apica’s performance monitoring and load testing portals for a more detailed analysis of the causes of performance bottlenecks.

Features in the new Apica ProxySniffer 5.0 include:

- Load clustering for ultimate scale. Apica ProxySniffer can execute multiple tests in different locations and operating systems. Various load generators can be interconnected to form a “virtual cluster” to achieve almost unlimited load levels. Temporary load agents can be “hired” from Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute to simulate over 200,000 concurrent users.

- Multithread support. A typical browser uses six parallel threads. Apica ProxySniffer can be adjusted to mimic these browsers all the way up to 24 parallel threads to provide a clear view of how your application performs in a real browser.

- Integration with Apica LoadTest portal. Load testing scripts recorded with Apica ProxySniffer can be uploaded to Apica’s web-based LoadTest portal to utilize the entire Apica web performance monitoring agent network, which includes more than 80 locations worldwide. Now integrated with AppDynamics, the LoadTest portal also provides a detailed inside view, down to the code level, of the path of a transaction to see exactly what is behind availability, response times, and other performance metrics.

“Apica ProxySniffer is now more equipped than ever to customize and scale load tests to meet the needs of any application tester,” says Sven Hammar, CEO of Apica. “Stress testing is the only way to truly know the limits of your web application. By leveraging the elasticity of the AWS Cloud to create virtual load clusters, we are able to give our users the ability to scale for mega load testing scenarios of up to 1 million simultaneous users, mimicking actual end-user behavior."

"Furthermore, paired with our performance monitoring tools, Apica ProxySniffer gives organizations the comprehensive insight needed to not only identify website and application bottlenecks, but get to the root cause of the problem to save time and money while improving the user experience.”

Apica ProxySniffer has flexible monthly, pay-as-you-go, and user-based pricing options to customize load testing based on an organization’s needs. Users can choose between load testing for a specific application launch or regular ongoing performance testing.