Thanks everyone who responded. I still don't have a firm idea of how I want to accomplish this, but now I do have a pool of choices in front of me based on your suggestions.

Here is an image to better illustrate what I was looking for
http://punkish.eidesis.org/images/docs/plan.gif
Sorry, I don't think I can embed an image in either a post or even in my scratchpad... Perlmonks should really consider joining the modern web by allowing links to external images.

Ideally, the network mount of /usr/local/ from one master machine to other machines seems like the best way. There is one possibly hitch in this -- while most machines are Intel, there is at least one that is an AMD Opteron 64 bit, so XS modules might have to be compiled for it specifically. In fact, even Perl may have to be compiled for it specifically. I could be totally wrong in this, because I don't know XS from my ass, but then, something to worry about.

Other than the possible recompile hitch based on different chip types, the other way is to make one master repo, and then rsync to other machines. That way, one doesn't have to depend upon the network mount during production, although, this is one reliable and ultra-fast network. All fiber on the LAN.

Basically, the idea is to not only save on the extra work required to recompile and install everything on every machine, but also to ensure that every machine has exactly the same base config at all times.

Thanks monks.