Great new white paper – reads as a list of “best practices” regarding SharePoint admin + deployment :

Administrator’s Guide of Topics to Consider before Deployment

This whitepaper guides administrators who are new to SharePoint products and technologies through key articles to consider before deploying SharePoint products and technologies in their environments.

Articles include server administration, governance, branding, and development.

Administrator’s Guide of Topics to Consider before Deployment

Contains some great descriptions, and lots of links to other TechNet articles.

Source : TechNet