Many deployments requires machine images for different server roles like applications and services, databases, and reverse proxies. Because building a machine image from scratch, using an operating system ISO and provisioning scripts, can take a considerable amount of time it can be useful to create a build pipeline for machine images. The first stage in the pipeline sets up a base image according to general standards in the organization. Subsequent stages can then enhance the base image for different purposes. If several applications or services have similar requirements, an application server for example, the pipeline can be extended by an intermediate stage, which takes the base image and provides an image with an application server but no application/service. These pipelines are not linear, they are trees that are branching out from the base image.
