Which type of testing is used to ensure an application can handle varying database volumes?

Volume testing is specifically designed to evaluate how an application handles a large amount of data over time. The goal of this type of testing is to identify any performance issues or bottlenecks that may arise when the application processes various volumes of data, essentially assessing its ability to manage increased database loads.

In volume testing, the focus is on how the system behaves with a significant amount of data, ensuring that it can perform optimally without crashing or slowing down. This is critical for applications that are expected to manage large databases or data sets consistently.

While load testing and scalability testing also address performance concerns, they mostly focus on server responses under concurrent user loads and the system's ability to grow, respectively, rather than examining the effects of varying database sizes directly. Spike testing, on the other hand, specifically evaluates how the application deals with sudden, brief increases in load, which is a different focus compared to volume testing.