Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
peak utilization periods in an environment of 24/7 resource availability
and consumption.
Testing
Before new operating environments or software applications can be
included in a network enterprise, it is critical to test their functionality
and suitability within a protected environment in order to protect the
production enterprise from unanticipated disruption or modification.
A test network should be used to perform this function, created as a
mirror of the settings and software solutions in use within the produc-
tion environment.
While many small-to-medium-sized organizations may not enjoy ade-
quate resources to create a duplicate network in its entirety, the use of
virtualization can allow a limited-capacity equivalent to be set up with
minimal hardware investment by creating an entire test network within a
small number of host systems. Virtualized test networks also allow rapid
rollback restoration to a known-good state in the event that software
under test produces negative integration results.
Deployment
Deployment forms the first line of software update, both when a bare-
metal system begins its life within the enterprise as well as in recovery fol-
lowing loss of function or after malware compromise. Initial deployment
of operating system environments and software applications may consist
of a fully configured “image,” an ad-hoc installation of individually con-
figured systems intended to meet specific user requirements, or through
automated package assignment atop a standard base.
•
Ad hoc
—Ad-hoc deployment solutions are not suitable beyond
very small enterprise environments, or when software licensing con-
straints demand per-system installation control such as when don-
gle-based physical l keys must be insta lled. Ad-hoc deployment entails
the greatest time expense and gains the greatest level of personaliza-
tion in installation, because every package is installed manually for
each system.
