What is a Cloud Node?
Cloud nodes are Catchpoint test nodes hosted in public cloud providers, such as Amazon. You can view cloud nodes from the Nodes > Map page, filtering on Type = Cloud.
Scheduled or instant tests can be run on cloud nodes by selecting the Cloud network type when setting up the test.
What’s the difference between Cloud Nodes and other node types?
Each node type has its own vantage point for running tests and collecting measurement data.
- Backbone Nodes – Monitor apps and services from top-tier Internet carriers providing the most reliable, consistent, and actionable view of performance and availability.
- Last Mile Nodes – Test from consumer ISPs to understand performance as experienced by end users.
- Mobile Nodes – Measure web site performance from cellular networks around the world.
- Enterprise Nodes – Deploy physical or virtual nodes in data centers, branch offices, brick and mortar stores, or call centers to monitor enterprise or SaaS applications from inside the company network.
- Cloud Nodes – Test applications from within the cloud to get an “inside the firewall” or first mile view of cloud performance.
An important distinction of cloud nodes is they are not in the direct line of service delivery to end users. For example, consider a web service hosted from a cloud provider. End users will access the service through an ISP and depend on DNS, CDNs, and variety of other supporting internet services and capabilities. While tests run from a cloud node can be very helpful for indicating service functionality, they don’t test end-user experience as completely as backbone and other node types – especially if they’re targeting services hosted in the same cloud provider data center. In other words, a web service may be hosted in “the cloud”, but its end-users don’t live there.
Can I run all the same test types on Cloud Nodes as Backbone Nodes?
Cloud nodes run the same test types as backbone nodes.
When should I use Cloud Nodes, and when should I avoid them?
If your primary goal is to understand and identify issues related to end user experience, we encourage you to use backbone, last mile and mobile nodes. These nodes are in the direct path of service delivery to end users.
However, if you are looking at first mile testing or functional testing within a cloud provider, then the Catchpoint cloud nodes may be suited to you needs. General use cases for cloud nodes include:
- Cloud hosted applications – Monitor from where the cloud application is hosted for a view of application and cloud network performance.
- Development and QA environments – Continuously test the functionality and content from the cloud prior to deploying code.
- First mile testing – Test the performance and availability of cloud-hosted applications from the first mile, without concern for ISP or other network influences.
- API Testing – Validate performance and reliability of your hybrid cloud solutions by localizing API performance issues from multiple cloud providers and locations.
If your network environment requires white listing of IP addresses for both inbound and outbound connections, Cloud nodes are not recommended for targeting as IPs are subject to change when a there is a node modifications done by the provider, or goes through maintenance.
In which cities and cloud providers are Cloud Nodes deployed?
Catchpoint offers testing from cloud nodes in many cities around the world hosted by Alibaba, AWS, Azure, Google, and Tencent.
For a full list of locations, see Nodes > Map in the Catchpoint portal, and filter on node Type = Cloud.
Will the geo locations for IP addresses (GeoIP) of cloud nodes match their actual location?
Registered Geo locations for IP addresses are managed by the cloud provider and MaxMind. Catchpoint cannot guarantee their accuracy. However, the location of Catchpoint cloud nodes can be seen in the Nodes > Map module of the Catchpoint portal.
Catchpoint currently has some backbone nodes hosted on cloud providers. These are named accordingly, such as “Beijing, CN – AWS” for the Amazon AWS backbone node in Beijing. To avoid disruption to any existing tests, we will keep these nodes unchanged until further notice. In the future, backbone AWS nodes may be migrated to the cloud node network, with ample notification for users.
What about the Backbone Nodes that are hosted on AWS?
Catchpoint currently has some backbone nodes hosted on cloud providers. These can be easily identified by the ISP = AWS, Azure, Google, Softlayer, etc., and are named accordingly. For example, “Beijing, CN – AWS” is the Amazon AWS backbone node in Beijing.
To avoid disruption to any existing tests, we will keep these nodes unchanged until further notice. In the future, backbone nodes hosted on cloud providers may be migrated to the cloud node network, with ample notification for users.
If you do have tests running on these nodes, you can keep them as-is. However, we do recommend you plan to migrate any such tests at your convenience to use either backbone or cloud nodes only. This will ensure the most consistent test results.