Assessing the value of configuration management systems

IT configuration management tools help to automate and test new releases. The central idea is that these types of products and practices help reduce surprises when new releases move into production. Configuration management systems help to reduce update errors and irregularities, enable server audits and ease scaling to bigger deployments. Once in place, they are supposed to make the little things easier (and more reliable) so that IT staff can devote themselves to high-level operations and tasks.

This three-part guide examines how an IT organization can use configuration management to test new releases and automate certain tasks, thereby saving time. Also discussed here:

• Why many IT shops are hesitant to deploy configuration management tools.
• How the deployment of containers might change configuration practices.
• How to reach a decision on whether a configuration management strategy is worth pursuing.