Best practices when working with a source control system include merging code often to ensure that changes from different team members are integrated regularly, reducing integration issues.
Committing code often is also recommended to save small changes frequently, which helps in tracking changes and resolving issues more effectively.

The current IP address range, 172.16.0.0/28, can only accommodate 14 hosts. To accommodate
16 new servers, the subnet mask needs to be changed to 255.255.255.128, which will allow for
16 hosts per subnet.

When backing up data that will traverse a third-party, untrusted network, encryption is the most important feature to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the data. Encryption will protect the data from potential interception or tampering during transit to the backup data center.

The blue-green deployment strategy is the best given the requirements for no disruption, no performance degradation, cost-effective deployment, and minimal deployment time. It involves maintaining two identical production environments (blue and green), where one hosts the current application version and the other is used to deploy the new version. Once testing on the green environment is complete, traffic is switched from blue to green, ensuring a seamless transition with no downtime.
Reference: Understanding various cloud deployment strategies, such as blue-green deployments, is essential for managing cloud environments effectively, as highlighted in the CompTIA Cloud+ objectives, to ensure smooth and efficient application updates.

For a government agency considering cloud migration, compliance and regulatory considerations are of utmost importance. The agency must ensure that the migration aligns with legal requirements, industry standards, and government regulations specific to the public sector.