With the introduction of virtualization, we are able to easily rebuild entire environments quickly; however there is a fair amount of complexity involved in doing so. We've created a tool called genome-bootstrap that automates the process of wiring a machine up to puppet.
There are essentially two ways of using genome-bootstrap. One way, is to provision machines into the cloud. The other uses a preinstalled machine and simply registers the machine with the Genome appliance for use with puppet. The wizard guides the user through all the options.