Network hosted configurations are the scourge of most admin's existence due to the emphasis it places on network reliability and performance along with a SPOF for the network storage.
The other aspect is that many admins are ally do not like the bad habits associated with an image-level of abstraction, which leads to many hidden dependencies and configurations settings. Aa package-level manifest like Puppet, Chef, or Ansible enables much more of a complete explicit specification of the environment along with cross-machine dependencies. Such a description also allows easier reassembly of subsets of the system into different combinations.
The trend towards image-level abstractions does work for many as an alternative: Netflix for example avoids Puppet and just reassembles AMI images on each deploy, with auto discovery of cross machine dependencies at runtime via (eg) Zookeeper or other cluster facilities. But they have the discipline not to get into an image sprawl situation.
The other aspect is that many admins are ally do not like the bad habits associated with an image-level of abstraction, which leads to many hidden dependencies and configurations settings. Aa package-level manifest like Puppet, Chef, or Ansible enables much more of a complete explicit specification of the environment along with cross-machine dependencies. Such a description also allows easier reassembly of subsets of the system into different combinations.
The trend towards image-level abstractions does work for many as an alternative: Netflix for example avoids Puppet and just reassembles AMI images on each deploy, with auto discovery of cross machine dependencies at runtime via (eg) Zookeeper or other cluster facilities. But they have the discipline not to get into an image sprawl situation.