Devver, a TechStars startup, is releasing its developer service to speed up running Ruby testing frameworks. Currently in private beta, Devver runs tests in parallel on their cloud, completing test suites in as little as 1/3 of the time it would take on a developer’s machine.
Devver says that using their cloud-based system, which splits up processing to multiple machines, it can run full test suites many times faster than in a typical developer environment. In addition, Devver is building features that will reduce setup and configuration time, enable easy scheduling, generate rich reports, and make it simple to share data between local and distributed developers. The product should be particularly useful in encouraging developer best practices — ie, not skipping a run of the full test suite before deploying a critical bug fix.
There are security issues to what Devver is offering, as companies must hand over their source code to third-party servers. But for Devver, there may be a sweet spot in finding companies who want faster testing and aren’t big or bureaucratic enough to care. Devver points to the success of GitHub, Engine Yard and Heroku as validation of cloud-based, ruby-focused services for the developer crowd. Further, they say that they will add functionality for PHP, Python, and Java testing frameworks in the future.
In October of 2008, Devver raised a $500,000 Series A round led by O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures that also included a group of Boulder-based angel investors, including David Cohen, the executive director of TechStars. The startup launched at the TechStars demo day last winter.