--- title: TestingBot has moved to its own cloud! | TestingBot Blog description: |- Ever since we started TestingBot (almost 2 years ago!) we've been running TestingBot on Amazon AWS (EC2 + S3 + other services). These last few mon... source_url: html: https://testingbot.com/blog/2013/12/06/testingbot-has-moved-to-its-own-cloud md: https://testingbot.com/blog/2013/12/06/testingbot-has-moved-to-its-own-cloud.md --- # TestingBot runs its own cloud By [Jochen D.](https://testingbot.com/about/jochen-d)2013-12-06 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Post on Reddit Share link ![private cloud](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2013/12/Chicago-Inside-Container-47-300x214.jpg) Ever since we started TestingBot (almost 2 years ago!) we've been running TestingBot on Amazon AWS (EC2 + S3 + other services). These last few months however, we've been moving everything from Amazon to our own private cloud. Originally Amazon AWS seemed like a good fit for us: easy to setup, manage and maintain. We'd scale up and down, depending on the number of tests our customers were running. As it turned out, AWS has its disadvantages: - **Noisy neighbours** : sometimes instances would behave much slower than usual, because other people on the same hypervisor were using all the hypervisor's resources. - **Expensive** : AWS is expensive, as soon as we start an instance, we're billed for the entire hour, even if we only need to run a 2 minute test on it. In July we started looking into running our own private cloud on a bunch of dedicated servers. Originally we planned to use VMWare's vSphere and vCenter, but after testing VMWare for 2 weeks we concluded it would not satisfy our needs: - **Expensive** : complicated/expensive licensing + expensive support - **Black box** : whenever something went wrong it was hard to troubleshoot since we can't look at the code. VMWare does have good documentation though. - **Complicated API** : we needed an API that would help us automate launching/destroying VMs. VMWare's APIs are complicated to test and use. After we ditched VMWare, we decided to look into an open-source solution: KVM + QEMU. This turned out to be an instant success: easy to install, setup and use. Together with libvirt we quickly had a proof of concept system where we could easily launch and destroy virtual machines. Now we're running our own cloud; as soon as a customer wants to run a test we spin up a VM in less than 10 seconds, run the test and destroy the VM after the test has finished. This way we guarantee pristine VMs, fast tests and a secure environment. Together with these changes, we've changed some more things on TestingBot: - Updated our OSX VMs to OSX Mavericks - Added IE11 to our grid - Created a ["prerun" capability](https://testingbot.com/support/web-automate/selenium/test-options "prerun capability") to download and run any program you specify before running your test so you can customise the VM to your liking. [← Previous post TestingBot open-sources NodeJS based Selenium grid](https://testingbot.com/blog/2013/09/06/testingbot-open-sources-nodejs-based-selenium-grid) [Next post → Run tests against any Selenium version](https://testingbot.com/blog/2014/01/12/run-tests-against-any-selenium-version) ## Sidebar ### TestingBot Cloud Testing Run automated, manual and visual tests on remote browsers and devices. Sign up for a free trial. [Free Trial](https://testingbot.com/users/sign_up) ### Latest articles [![Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/ai-insights.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) #### Announcing AI Test Insights Use AI Insights to quickly discover why an automated test... [Read: Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) [![Selenium vs Playwright 2026](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/selenium-vs-playwright-2026.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-vs-playwright) #### Selenium vs Playwright 2026 Comparing Selenium vs Playwright - which is the best test... [Read: Selenium vs Playwright 2026](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-vs-playwright) [![Maestro Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/maestro-physical.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/maestro-physical-device-testing) #### Maestro Physical Device Testing Maestro testing in parallel on physical Android and iOS d... [Read: Maestro Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/blog/maestro-physical-device-testing) ## Related Articles [![Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/ai-insights.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights "Announcing AI Test Insights") ### [Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) Use AI Insights to quickly discover why an automated test failed. [Read article →](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) [![Selenium vs Playwright 2026](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/selenium-vs-playwright-2026.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-vs-playwright "Selenium vs Playwright 2026") ### [Selenium vs Playwright 2026](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-vs-playwright) Comparing Selenium vs Playwright - which is the best test framework for your usecase? [Read article →](https://testingbot.com/blog/selenium-vs-playwright) [![Maestro Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/maestro-physical.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/maestro-physical-device-testing "Maestro Physical Device Testing") ### [Maestro Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/blog/maestro-physical-device-testing) Maestro testing in parallel on physical Android and iOS devices. [Read article →](https://testingbot.com/blog/maestro-physical-device-testing) [![tvOS Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2025/appletv.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/tvos-automated-testing "tvOS Physical Device Testing") ### [tvOS Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/blog/tvos-automated-testing) Run automated tvOS tests on physical AppleTV devices. [Read article →](https://testingbot.com/blog/tvos-automated-testing) ## More by Jochen D. [![Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/ai-insights.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights "Announcing AI Test Insights") ### [Announcing AI Test Insights](https://testingbot.com/blog/ai-test-insights) Use AI Insights to quickly discover why an automated test failed. [![Maestro Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2026/maestro-physical.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/maestro-physical-device-testing "Maestro Physical Device Testing") ### [Maestro Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/blog/maestro-physical-device-testing) Maestro testing in parallel on physical Android and iOS devices. [![tvOS Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/assets/blog/2025/appletv.jpg)](https://testingbot.com/blog/tvos-automated-testing "tvOS Physical Device Testing") ### [tvOS Physical Device Testing](https://testingbot.com/blog/tvos-automated-testing) Run automated tvOS tests on physical AppleTV devices. [See all posts by Jochen D. →](https://testingbot.com/about/jochen-d) ## Ready to start testing? [Start a free trial](https://testingbot.com/users/sign_up)