Here is another series of articles published on SharePoint Magazine which is informative, and has practical and real world value:
SharePoint Farm configuring and deployment. Part 1 – Architectural and Logical Planning
SharePoint Farm configuring and deployment Part 2 – Installation & Configuration
SharePoint Farm configuring and deployment Part 3 – Development Environment
SharePoint Farm configuring and deployment. Part 4 – Backup and Recovery Strategy
SharePoint Farm configuring and deployment. Part 5 – Virtualization
SharePoint Farm configuring and deployment Part 6 – Post Deployment
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