It's been two years since we started using puppet in a production environment and it's worth taking a step back to see the big picture.

What's worked well? Firstly puppet is still around and very active. Reductive Labs (who develop puppet) just closed their first funding round. Old setups from two years ago still work just as they always have done.

What has improved? The documentation has got a lot better, however it still really need a big cleanup. The language has some new features which have really helped (external node definitions stick out here as a huge improvement). "has_variable?" and the like also have make code cleaner and hence more understandable.

What is left to do? Handling multiple environments needs work and the language is still too restrictive - forcing people to use horrific hacks to work around issues. The biggest issue is now managing puppet - ideally you want to use your workstation to view your entire server estate and then drill down to see what changes need applying (or have been applied).

We're sure the next two years will bring large changes in these areas. Long live puppet!