We are all gearing up for Christmas but there is one man who is certainly at his busiest right now.
He may have been around for hundreds of years but even Father Christmas must move with the times and grasp the digital age.
Here are some of the best ways Santa and his team of elves can make sure his IT infrastructure can handle the needs of his growing enterprise.
Secure Santa
Every year the elves manage data for millions of children worldwide. This cannot get into the wrong hands and must be kept secure.
All elf devices need to be airtight. They need round-the-clock monitoring with the latest patches and upgrades.
Father Christmas can ensure data encryption, both at rest and in transit. If an elf loses his laptop with the draft naughty list, the finder won’t be able to open it. In transit guarantees that if someone intercepts the list they won’t be able to read it only Santa can open the list when the Chief Elf mails it to him.
Santa will need to have the best firewalls in place to monitor his network traffic. This allows the correct elves are allowed in and that there are no external threats from hackers. A next-generation firewall will give him greater protection and block any Scrooge’s trying to disrupt his plans.
Elfy Emails
More than 90% of cyber-attacks start with an email, at such a busy time the elves could easily overlook a sophisticated email threat.
We would recommend Santa gets protected with a DMARC email security system to reduce the risk of being scammed. However, the elves are Santa’s first line of defence when it comes to phishing emails. Educating the elves and testing them can help Santa are on their keep the elves on their toes.
Christmas Capacity
Santa still hasn’t moved all his workload to the cloud. There are many benefits including cost savings, but it can be hard to know where to start.
Before making the move Santa needs to have optimised his workloads. Optimising capacity doesn’t mean needing and paying more, it could even save him money. IT Naturally could take stock of what he currently has and check to see if he is paying for something he doesn’t need.
Optimising his IT infrastructure capacity means having “just enough” resources required to run applications and services without interruptions in desired performance.
Elves On-Call
With a project of this size on Christmas Eve and a strict deadline to fill its paramount, it all runs smoothly.
But what happens if something does go wrong?
Incident response can’t even begin without an effective on-call process and system. Santa needs to think about the following:
• A designated elf always needs to be available
• So they and discover the incident and ideally fix it before any children are affected
• Hope for the best and plan for the worst.
If all the elves already have designated roles like making toys and packing the sleigh, it may be worth Santa thinking about outsourcing to IT Naturally. We run a 24/7 service desk – yes even on Christmas day. We can handle incidents quickly and with expert knowledge to ensure Santa’s enterprise continues to run smoothly.
Can you imagine if things go wrong, and all the boys and girls don’t get their presents in time – how much that would damage Santa’s reputation.
Santa Strategy
Santa, please make sure you have your IT infrastructure strategy in place to think about all the above.
Maybe if you don’t have all this in place yet, we can help you in January and make sure you’re running smoothly for Christmas 2022.
Empowering your business because IT comes Naturally to us.
