1999
Wow we're partying like it's 1999 in here. Allow me to update your gramaphones.
1. Continuous deployment to production is *highly desirable*.
Big bang deployments dump multiple changes into prod at once, vastly increasing your risk area. If Amazon are deploying every 16 seconds, given their admirable (though not perfect) uptime record, they clearly have a robust deployment pipeline, testing framework and rollback system.
2. Frequent commits to Version Control are *highly desirable*.
If you are using a modern DVCS such as GIT or Hg, frequent atomic commits allow code changes to be accurately tracked and reported. Perhaps it's time to upgrade from your VCC instance?
DevOps (unlike Agile) is something IT Professionals should be paying close attention to, it has tangible and immediate benefits.