| --- |
| page_title: Use Cases - Introduction |
| description: |- |
| By now you should know what Packer does and what the benefits of image |
| creation are. In this section, we'll enumerate *some* of the use cases for |
| Packer. Note that this is not an exhaustive list by any means. There are |
| definitely use cases for Packer not listed here. This list is just meant to |
| give you an idea of how Packer may improve your processes. |
| --- |
| |
| # Use Cases |
| |
| By now you should know what Packer does and what the benefits of image creation |
| are. In this section, we'll enumerate _some_ of the use cases for Packer. Note |
| that this is not an exhaustive list by any means. There are definitely use cases |
| for Packer not listed here. This list is just meant to give you an idea of how |
| Packer may improve your processes. |
| |
| ### Continuous Delivery |
| |
| Packer is lightweight, portable, and command-line driven. This makes it the |
| perfect tool to put in the middle of your continuous delivery pipeline. Packer |
| can be used to generate new machine images for multiple platforms on every |
| change to Chef/Puppet. |
| |
| As part of this pipeline, the newly created images can then be launched and |
| tested, verifying the infrastructure changes work. If the tests pass, you can be |
| confident that the image will work when deployed. This brings a new level of |
| stability and testability to infrastructure changes. |
| |
| ### Dev/Prod Parity |
| |
| Packer helps [keep development, staging, and production as similar as |
| possible](http://www.12factor.net/dev-prod-parity). Packer can be used to |
| generate images for multiple platforms at the same time. So if you use AWS for |
| production and VMware (perhaps with [Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/)) for |
| development, you can generate both an AMI and a VMware machine using Packer at |
| the same time from the same template. |
| |
| Mix this in with the continuous delivery use case above, and you have a pretty |
| slick system for consistent work environments from development all the way |
| through to production. |
| |
| ### Appliance/Demo Creation |
| |
| Since Packer creates consistent images for multiple platforms in parallel, it is |
| perfect for creating |
| [appliances](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_appliance) and disposable |
| product demos. As your software changes, you can automatically create appliances |
| with the software pre-installed. Potential users can then get started with your |
| software by deploying it to the environment of their choice. |
| |
| Packaging up software with complex requirements has never been so easy. Or |
| enjoyable, if you ask me. |
