With DevOps a relatively young concept, Joe Townsend explores how configuration management fits into the big picture. Some professionals, however, might contend that CM conflicts with DevOps and agile methodologies.

While network standards that form the backbone of the Internet are widely accepted, cloud standards have been adopted more slowly by the community and the marketplace. As cloud infrastructure technology matures, increased vendor interest is driving a renewed effort to create viable standards.

Should agile expand to other areas of business functions, such as marketing, human resources, public relations, finance, etc.? Joe Townsend believes the answer is "yes," "no," and "it depends."