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It is that time of year.

Santa’s making a list. And he’s checking it twice.

He’s tallying the counts and determining who’s naughty or nice.

Santa needs to track the billions of letters that come his way this time of year — all of them vitally important — and security is of paramount importance. Parents and kids everywhere are placing their trust in Santa. The world needs Santa to deliver!

Santa’s challenge

Santa’s workload has increased tremendously this year. He’s facing pressure to deliver personalized gifts securely. He’s also had to keep on the cutting edge of technology to keep pace with the ever-changing demands of Christmas. Presents are more complex, and even though global population growth means more present drops are necessary, the deadline has stayed the same.

This is something we can all relate to.

It all boils down to Christmas Eve. How do you deliver 1.9 billion presents to 71.7 million households before dawn breaks and the little munchkins run out of their rooms to see what Santa left under the tree?

Santa’s solution

When North Pole Operations were faced with the choice of what server infrastructure to choose, they agonized long and hard.

Only one server stood out: IBM z Systems. North Pole Operations needed the ability to process billions of messages daily, so the IBM z13‘s ability to handle 30 billion RESTful web interactions per day with sub-second response times made it the perfect choice. To keep the present lists and naughty/nice database intact, the ability to provide isolation and encryption at every level was vital. The fact that much of the world’s corporate data resides or originates on mainframes also meant that z13 was security-rich enough for North Pole Operations.

The North Pole Operations team also needed to ensure that interactions with present supply chain partners would remain secure. To that end, the z13’s EAL 5 certification (the highest in the industry) came in handy. North Pole Operations said the final reason for going with IBM z Systems was because 92 of the top 100 worldwide banks and 23 of the top 25 US retailers also trust IBM.

Just when you started to wonder whether the Jolly Old Man can still manage to pull off his magic this year, it’s become clear that with IBM z Systems, he’s going to outdo himself for sure.

“Without IBM, the success of the whole run-up to and the ultimate success of Christmas would have been in jeopardy, but with z Systems we will all be able to dig into our Christmas meal safe in the knowledge every kid naughty or nice got the present they deserve!”, Seymour Happi, Chief Presents Officer, North Pole Operations

Happy Holidays from all of us here at IBM!

If you are wondering who else other than Santa picked IBM z Systems, check out our IBM z Systems Success Stories.

The post Why Santa picks IBM to deliver gifts this Christmas? appeared first on IBM Systems Blog: In the Making.