The year ahead likely will be filled with unprecedented challenges in terms of both technology and business demands. While technology and business needs are certainly complex, the people and personality issues may be even more challenging to deal with. This article will get you started with tackling some of these people-related challenges that you will likely encounter in the coming year.

The new year starts out with the perfect storm for DevOps and highlights the need for robust IT operations. Bob Aiello writes that in the coming year, many companies will be focused on stabilizing IT infrastructure and addressing many of the challenges that have so dramatically impacted businesses in recent memory.

The isaca Cobit 4.1 framework has thirty-four IT processes which include a considerable amount of information on exactly how to establish effect IT controls and, more importantly, successfully meet your IT compliance requirements. Bob Aiello takes a walk through each of the Cobit controls and discuss, in practical terms, how improved processes can be successfully implemented and supported.

DevOps has been front and center lately (2011 and 2012) with many organizations working to embrace deployment its recommended practices—sometimes referred to as agile systems administration. However, Bob Aiello writes that in some ways, DevOps has failed and we need to hold our own retrospective to understand how we can best improve.