Best practices for change management in the data center

Change management (also known as configuration management), in reference to technological installations, upgrades, patching, and migrations (such as a physical server to a virtual machine) isn’t always safe or easy.

Here are a few tips to remember:

* Anything mission-critical needs a twin (applies to servers, network hardware, and even storage).

* Always schedule downtime in your monitoring system.

* Choose your change schedule carefully.

* Devise change plans with multiple input.

* Don’t assume because you can do something then it must be working.

* Get as much input from others as you can to spot any pitfalls.

* Space out changes between redundant systems.

* Use a centralized solution to deploy updates.

* Use auditing and individual accounts.

* Utilize multiple approval methods.

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