Build vs Buy: Should You Have an In-House Lab or Go with Cloud Solutions?
Published: 2023-09-04 07:41:34

Many times organizations find themselves between two choices when it comes to QA testing, should they set up their own in-house testing lab or use a cloud based solution. In this article, we’ll look into both and then try to come up with a conclusion based on your choices. Also, we’ll look into an innovative AI-driven testing solution that operates in the cloud.

**Build vs Buy: What to consider before making the decision:**

Before we go into the details, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind when you decide between building an in-house lab or using a cloud based solution:

## What is the budget?
An important component when making the decision is the budget. When building your own in-house lab you must keep in mind that it includes infrastructure, hardware, licenses, and hiring qualified personnel. Whereas, cloud-based solutions more or less offer pay-as you go which allows you to use resources as your budget.

How do I justify the cost of manpower for Build vs. Buy?
You must take into account that if you build an in-house lab there are going to be up-front costs, maintenance as well as analyzing costs. A team including testers, developers and experts is needed to build an internal lab. Your decision should be taken keeping all these points into considerations. Cloud-based solutions generally take care of all these things.

## What does the team/business need?
It’s necessary to know the particular needs of your team and company. Analyze your team’s capacity and technical skills for efficient lab management. Also keep in mind points like teamwork potential, integration, scalability, etc. It’s important to know these points for appropriate solution

## How fast do you need a tool?
You may lean into using a cloud based solution such as TestGrid.io quickly. Because when setting your own lab it requires setting up infrastructure, creating testing framework, configuring environment, which can take some time. Whereas, you can quickly deploy cloud-based solutions like TestGrid.io, which enables you to start testing right away.

## The In-House Lab Approach:
When making an in house testing lab configuration of infrastructure, getting hardware and software, and hiring a team of testers is required. This also has some benefits such as:

**1. Control and Security:** When you use an in-house lab you have total control over the testing environment and data security. This level of control may be essential for some industries

**2. Customization:** In-house labs allow you to meet your own specific needs and requirements. You can configure your own infrastructure, tools, and framework according to your project needs.

**3. Immediate Access:** When you have your own lab, in need of immediate access you can just contact the team to make any changes required whether it be framework, tools or infrastructures everything can be done according to you.

**4. Confidentiality:** An internal lab guarantees confidentiality and reduces the possibility of data leakage in situations where sensitive information needs to be tested.

However, building and maintaining an in-house lab comes with challenges:

**1. Costly Infrastructure:** Physical infrastructure setup and upkeep can be costly, requiring hefty upfront hardware and software license expenditures as well as ongoing maintenance expenses.

**2. Scalability:** In-house labs may have trouble expanding or contracting in response to project demands. Additional investments are frequently needed to increase capacity or accommodate new projects, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

**3. Skill Set Requirements:** It takes hiring qualified testing specialists and ongoing investment in their training and development to create a successful in-house lab. This can be difficult, especially in fields where talent is expensive or in short supply..

## The Cloud Solution Approach:
TestGrid.io and other cloud-based testing solutions provide a solution to having your own internal conventional lab. These solutions offer a virtual testing environment using web browsers or software. The benefits of cloud computing are as following

**1. Cost-Effectiveness:** When using TestGrid or other solutions there is no need for getting any hardware therefore no need for its maintenance. With a cloud solution you can use more resources as per your needs and pay accordingly.

**2. Flexibility and Scalability:** With cloud based solutions you can change your testing infrastructure with your project needs. The testing efforts can be quickly increased during busy times and decreased during slower times.

**3. Accessibility and Collaboration:** Cloud based solutions make it possible for everyone on the team to collaborate easily by enabling remote access to testing environments. You can use TestGrid.io from anywhere using the internet.

**4. Rapid Deployment:** While using cloud solutions like TestGrid.io the deployment rate increases as well as the testing cycles are shortened which in-turn makes it time efficient.

**A few disadvantages of cloud solution approaches include:
**
**1. Dependency on Third-Party**: When using cloud provider, you are reliable on them and the efficiency and services depends on their product

**2. Data Security Concerns**: Some organizations might have sensitive data and they would rather make their own in-house lab.

**3. Limited Customisation**: While using cloud-based solutions the customisation is limited and when you have some special requirements it’s better to have an in-house lab.

## Introducing TestGrid

TestGrid is a leading provider of end-to-end automation cloud and on-premise testing solutions. With a focus on simplifying the testing process, TestGrid’s innovative AI-powered technology allows organizations to achieve significant time and cost savings while accelerating their go-to-market strategies.

**With TestGrid, you can:**

**1. Accelerate Testing**: As TestGrid provides a low-code no-code solution, the testing becomes faster than the conventional way.

**2. Increase Efficiency**: TestGrid frees up unnecessary resources to focus on higher-value tasks like analysis, report or design. Which, therefore, improves efficiency.

**3. Enhance Collaboration**: Because TestGrid.io is cloud-based, everyone on the team can access it with the internet from anywhere and anytime therefore, which makes it easier for the team to collaborate on a daily basis.

### Conclusion:

Whether to build an internal lab or use cloud-based solutions can be determined by a few variables such as budget, project requirement, and scalability. Even though cloud solutions like TestGrid provide cost-effectiveness, easy-to-use, simple yet effective user interface, internal labs provide control, customization as well as privacy of data. Although, the privacy data can be solved by TestGrid by providing on-premise setup. In the end, the decision can be made by considering all of the above points to whether to own an in-house lab or use TestGrid or any other cloud-based solution.

Originally published at https://www.testgrid.io/blog/in-house-device-lab-vs-cloud-solution/