Testers have long been asked to test earlier, faster, and more often. In truth, however, when critical APIs, integrations, or microservices aren’t ready, testing gets stuck. We’ve all been there, raring to go, like greyhounds in the slips… but with nothing to test, and increasingly concerned about the impending last-minute panic.
So yes, testing early and continuously is a sound principle, but many of us aren’t able to start on time. However, there is an easy way to fix this problem, allowing testers to work their magic early and test the untestable.
Service Virtualisation (also known as mock services) has been around for years, quietly solving these problems, yet remains strangely underutilised and misunderstood… until now!
What Does Service Virtualisation Do?
In simple terms, service virtualisation allows you to simulate software components accurately, with rich, complex, real-world responses. Which is helpful for several reasons, including:
- Parts of your system aren’t available yet.
- Third-party feeds and connections charge per call.
- Components and hardware are too expensive for multiple test environments.
Instead of waiting for a dependent API, message-based service, database, or third-party system, testers can create a realistic stand-in that behaves almost exactly like the real thing.
These virtual services are not to be confused with stubs that offer little more than a basic response. Virtual services respond predictably, mimic performance conditions, and can even model edge‑case scenarios that might be difficult to reproduce otherwise.
The result? Testing starts much earlier, even before full system integration, and enables continuous validation of functionality, reliability, and performance.
How Much Does Service Virtualisation Cost?
You might assume service virtualisation is an added expense, another tool or platform licence to justify. In practice, it’s frequently the opposite. Compared to the spiralling costs of third-party providers, delays, partial environments, and late defect fixes, virtualisation dramatically reduces your total cost of quality.
Yes but what’s the actual cost, I hear you ask? Well, a one-year subscription license for OpenText Service Virtualization is a little as £7597. This includes a designer licence and 10 web services.
Then you have to consider the savings, which usually amount to far more than the cost.
Service virtualisation prevents waste, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies across the entire delivery chain. Once a single virtual service is created, it can be reused continuously across projects, pipelines, and teams — multiplying its return with each use.
Typical areas where teams see tangible savings include:
- Reduced dependency on external or third‑party systems such as payment providers, CRM platforms, or regulatory gateways, which often charge per transaction or restrict test access.
- Reduced need for key systems if they can be virtualised, for instance, backend systems and their associated costs and effort.
- Lower defect remediation costs thanks to earlier test cycles that catch integration issues before they reach production.
- Faster onboarding and training using realistic simulated systems without risking live data or incurring internal effort or third‑party fees.
- Improved team utilisation as functional testers, performance engineers, trainers, and developers can work in parallel.
- Lower IT environment costs since virtual services replicate real‑world behaviour without the need for full‑stack integration setups. Also, good for the actual environment.
From a tooling perspective, licensing options vary depending on scope and vendor. Leading tools such as OpenText Service Virtualization scale flexibly from small pilot use cases to enterprise‑grade deployments.
When every week saved in testing translates into accelerated release cycles, reduced overtime, and fewer production fire drills, the real question isn’t “Can we afford it?” but “How much is our current approach costing us?”
How Does Service Virtualisation Accelerate Testing?
Service virtualisation isn’t just about saving money; it also changes the pace and rhythm of testing altogether.
It gives testers the autonomy to accelerate projects. Instead of being hindered by missing pieces, they can accelerate forward confidently and identify issues early, preventing them from snowballing into more serious integration defects or live issues.
When you use service virtualisation, testing doesn’t grind to a halt and testers don’t sit around waiting for other teams or vendors to deliver. It enables projects to:
- Begin functional testing long before all components arrive.
- Run performance testing under controlled, repeatable conditions.
- Reduce idle time, remove dependencies, and smooth out test cycles.
How Does Service Virtualisation Solve Software Development Problems?
Despite what many people assume, service virtualisation isn’t theoretical. It is proven and battle-tested. It’s one of those rare quality practices that improves both speed and assurance simultaneously, and teams that adopt it consistently report tangible benefits:
- Earlier feedback loops and faster defect discovery.
- Reduced project risk through proactive testing.
- Higher productivity as testers work in parallel with developers.
- Shorter delivery schedules thanks to fewer delays and rework.
In a recent case study, a large European bank used a leading service virtualisation solution (OpenText Service Virtualization) to virtualise third-party and internal services, simulating real-world behaviour and significantly improving testing quality and CI/CD capabilities.
Check out a couple of additional case studies here:
- Service virtualisation transforms testing environments
- Service virtualisation transforms application development
Why Aren’t More Companies Using Service Virtualisation?
Despite its clear benefits and problem-solving capabilities, the adoption rate of service virtualisation remains surprisingly low. With the vast majority of businesses I work with still using the “wait-for-delivery” approach, delaying meaningful testing until late in the cycle.
The reasons for the low uptake are doubtless familiar to you: limited awareness, perceived complexity, and resistance to change.
Some teams assume virtualisation is challenging to set up or fear it requires significant infrastructure changes.
In reality, service virtualisation is straightforward to set up and use. It can begin small with a pilot, or a single service, and deliver value almost immediately. When projects do adopt it, they quickly realise how simple and powerful service virtualisation is, and wish they’d started sooner.
How to Get Started With Service Virtualisation
If your goal is to test earlier, more effectively, and with less stress before release deadlines, here’s how to start:
- Educate your team by sharing this article and arranging a demo.
- Run a small pilot to demonstrate quick wins and internal credibility.
- Secure leadership backing by showing tangible savings in time and cost.
- Integrate with your test pipelines so virtual components become part of your daily practice, not an experiment.
Once in place, teams typically find they can keep development and testing moving in lockstep with no more waiting, guessing, or hoping upstream systems arrive on time.
Conclusion: Test Early and Cut Costs With Service Virtualisation
Service virtualisation is neither new nor risky. It’s a proven enabler that pays for itself by reducing the need for complete, fully connected test environments, which are notoriously expensive and time-consuming to maintain.
Quality assurance shouldn’t be a reactive firefight squeezed into the final weeks of a project. The sooner teams adopt virtualisation, the sooner they can escape this end-stage testing panic and move toward truly proactive quality.
Have you used service virtualisation? If not, what has prevented you? Let us know in the comments!
