website: what is packer, in progress

website/source/docs/what-is-packer.html.markdown

+---
+layout: "docs"
+---
+
+# What is Packer?
+
+Packer is a tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms
+from a single source configuration. Packer is lightweight, runs on every major
+operating system, and is highly performant, creating machine images for
+multiple platforms in parallel.
+
+A _machine image_ is a single static unit that contains a pre-configured operating
+system and installed software which is used to quickly create new running machines.
+Machine image formats change for each platform. Some examples include
+[AMIs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Machine_Image) for EC2,
+VMDK/VMX files for VMware, OVF exports for VirtualBox, etc.
+
+Historically, creating
+these images has been a predominantly manual process. Any existing automated tools were able to
+create only one type of image. Packer, on the other hand, is able to automatically
+create any type of image, all from a single source configuration.
+
+Pre-baked machine images have a lot of advantages, but we've been unable to
+benefit from them because they have been too tedious to create and manage.
+Packer tears down this barrier, allowing the benefits of pre-baked machine
+images to become available to everyone. Some benefits include:
+
+* Super fast infrastructure deployment. Packer images allow you to launch
+completely provisioned and configured machines in seconds, rather than
+several minutes or hours. This benefits not only production, but development as well,
+since development virtual machines can also be launched in seconds, without waiting
+for a typically much longer provisioning time.
+
+* Multi-provider portability. Because Packer creates identical images for
+multiple platforms, you can run production in AWS, staging/QA in a private
+cloud like OpenStack, and development in desktop virtualization solutions
+such as VMware or VirtualBox. Each environment is running an identical
+machine image, giving ultimate portability.
+
+* Improved stability. Packer installs and configures all the software for
+a machine at the time the image is built. If there are bugs in these scripts,
+they'll be caught early, rather than several minutes after a machine is launched.
+
+* Improved testability. After a machine image is built, that machine image
+can be quickly launched and smoke tested to verify that things appear to be
+working. If they are, you can be confident that any other machines launched
+from that image will function properly.

website/source/layouts/docs.erb

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 				<div class="span3">
 					<div class="well sidebar-nav" style="padding: 8px 0;">
 						<ul class="nav nav-list">
-							<li><a href="/docs/concepts/what-is-packer.html">What is Packer?</a></li>
+							<li><a href="/docs/what-is-packer.html">What is Packer?</a></li>
 							<li><a href="#">Use Cases</a></li>
 							<li><a href="#">Installation</a></li>