1. Standard Operating Environment.
2. There are many reasons, but commonly enterprises will have Linux machines in service for many years (often whether they originally planned to or not!). An operation system falling out of support and not having security patches available is a big problem for most enterprises, and so Linux distributions should be chosen accordingly.
3. Yes, absolutely—the standards are there to serve as a guideline and to prevent things from getting chaotic, but they are not intended to be so rigid that they hamper progress or innovation.
4. Possible answers might include the following:
   • The speed at which new machines can be brought up for scaling purposes
   • Confidence in those machines that they will work the same as the current ones
   • The reliability of the machines brought into service
5. Possible answers...