* Why you need automatic server provisioning - and why it needs to improve

By Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Network World, 05/03/05

Next-generation data centers are supposed to be hotbeds of automation with on-demand everything. In this ideal, system administrators are almost obsolete, and the data center runs “by itself.”

This vision brings to mind a sarcastic T-shirt seen recently on a system admin: “Go away or I will replace you with a small and efficient script.”

Reality rudely intrudes into this vision. For one thing, operating systems are composed of thousands of components with tight bindings and a maze of interdependencies. Each of these components, from the user-administration system to the mail server, may have a completely different management interface - some scripted, some GUI-based and so forth. In this kind of environment, it is very difficult to create an automated provisioning and deployment tool that works consistently.