Management of Change

<p>Management of Change (MOC) is a structured process that ensures changes to critical systems — electrical, mechanical, IT or software — are properly reviewed, approved and communicated before execution. In data centre operations, uncontrolled changes are a leading cause of outages: the Uptime Institute has consistently reported that human error and process failure account for the majority of significant downtime events.</p><p>An MOC process typically includes: change request, risk assessment, impact analysis, approval by appropriate authority, scheduling during a maintenance window, rollback plan and post-change verification. Emergency change procedures exist for critical unplanned work but require retrospective documentation. MOC is a core requirement for Uptime Institute M&O Stamp of Approval and for ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 certification.</p>