Tech Horizons: Evaluating StackSafe's Test Center Risk Reduction Solution

The popularity of change and configuration management solutions is a testimony to the vital role that controlling change plays in an IT operation. Deploying a new application — or changes to an existing application — on an existing infrastructure is an exact science that does not tolerate any errors. The ideal solution for eliminating deployment problems is to validate the changes on a full-scale copy of the production platform. Unfortunately, this is rarely an option: It entails either great costs to duplicate the target infrastructure or the interruption of production — and, in any case, is a use of time and resources that IT operations can't afford. Providing a "sandbox" that is an exact replica of the target infrastructure and that can be brought up and down quickly could solve the validation issues. StackSafe's solution is just that. By using virtualization to recreate an existing server infrastructure and opening the sandbox to what cannot be virtualized, StackSafe's Test Center provides a validation environment for a number of application deployment issues.