As offices prepare to close over Christmas, the technology that supports the business keeps running. Customer systems, cloud services, security controls, backups and scheduled processes still need oversight, even when fewer people are available to respond.
Holiday risk often comes from unfinished preparation. An alert may reach an unattended inbox. Remote access may fail when an authorised responder needs it. A backup may report success without anyone confirming that the data can be restored. A critical service may depend on one person who is already on leave.
A structured readiness review helps expose these gaps before the office closes. It also shows whether the organisation can maintain stable, secure and supportable operations without relying heavily on individual knowledge.
"The holiday period provides a practical test of an organisation’s IT maturity. A mature environment remains stable, secure and supportable with fewer staff available and without depending heavily on individual team members.”
Start with the systems the business cannot afford to lose
Begin by identifying the services that must remain available during the closure. The list will differ between organisations, but it commonly includes identity and authentication, customer-facing platforms, finance systems, email, internet connectivity, cloud infrastructure, backup platforms and security monitoring.
For each critical service, record:
- the business and technical owners
- its required availability during the closure
- how it is monitored and where its alerts are sent
- the primary responder and escalation contact
- the relevant vendor and recovery priority
This step prevents teams from treating every system as equally urgent. It also gives holiday responders a usable map of what matters to business operations.
Check that monitoring will lead to action
Monitoring is useful only when a meaningful alert reaches someone who can assess it. Before the closure, confirm that monitoring covers server and network health, cloud services, backup failures, endpoint and security events, storage capacity, expiring certificates and critical scheduled jobs.
Then test the path from detection to response:
- Generate a controlled test alert and confirm that it reaches the intended person.
- Check that shared mailboxes, ticket queues and mobile notifications will be monitored.
- Define which events require immediate action and which can wait.
- Nominate secondary coverage if the primary responder is unavailable.
- Confirm how incidents will be escalated to management, security specialists or vendors.
Review alert thresholds as well. Duplicate or low-value notifications create noise and can make significant events harder to identify when coverage is limited. Do not solve this by disabling monitoring for the break. Refine the rules and document any temporary adjustment.
Complete critical patching without creating unnecessary change risk
Review outstanding vulnerabilities before the closure, with particular attention to internet-facing services, network devices, servers, endpoint security platforms and remote access infrastructure.
The Australian Signals Directorate includes patching applications and operating systems in the Essential Eight. Its guidance recommends applying patches according to an organisation’s exposure. For online services and operating systems on internet-facing network devices and servers, the recommended timeframe is within two weeks, or within 48 hours when a vendor identifies the vulnerability as critical or working exploits exist.
Deployment is not proof of completion. Check whether the patch installed, whether a restart is pending, whether the service returned to normal operation and whether monitoring resumed. Assign failed deployments to a named owner.
Avoid squeezing non-essential upgrades or major configuration changes into the final days before closure. Where a change must proceed, allow time for validation and ensure there is a tested rollback method and support coverage after deployment.
Test remote access before people leave
Remote access may become the main route for an authorised employee or support provider to investigate an incident. Test it from the off-site device and network that the holiday responder expects to use.
The check should cover:
- VPN or other approved remote access
- multi-factor authentication and access to the required authentication method
- privileged access to administration tools
- device compliance requirements
- remote monitoring and management tools
- access to current procedures and vendor portals
Review access at the same time. Disable inactive accounts, remove access for departed personnel, check temporary access expiry dates and confirm that administrative credentials remain appropriately controlled. The Essential Eight also identifies multi-factor authentication and restricted administrative privileges as baseline mitigation strategies.
Verify backups and recovery
A successful backup notification does not show that the organisation can recover usable data. Confirm that scheduled jobs are completing, critical systems are in scope, failed jobs have been investigated, storage capacity is sufficient and alerts are reaching an active responder.
Complete a representative restore test before the closure. Record what was restored, who performed the test, whether the recovered data was usable and any issue that needs remediation. Ensure the holiday responder can find current recovery procedures and understands system dependencies.
Regular backups are part of the Essential Eight, alongside patching and multi-factor authentication. These controls work together. A backup does not reduce the need to protect access or apply security updates, and patching does not replace tested recovery.
Define holiday support and incident responsibilities
Reduced staffing makes clear ownership more important. Prepare a concise support plan that names the primary and secondary contacts, service desk arrangements, security incident contact, management escalation contact, managed service provider and key vendors.
Define which events require prompt assessment. These may include the loss of a critical business service, suspected account compromise, malware detections, backup failures affecting critical data, internet outages and unauthorised administrative activity. Response commitments should match approved support arrangements and service agreements.
The technical handover should include known issues, recent changes, deferred work, systems requiring additional observation, open vendor cases and temporary configurations. Store it in a location the covering team can access securely.
Prepare employees who will work during the closure
Employees working from home or while travelling should know which devices and access methods are approved. Ask them to complete required updates before leaving, keep devices physically secure and report lost equipment or suspicious activity through the agreed channel.
Holiday-themed messages and unexpected login prompts warrant care. Staff should avoid unapproved file-sharing services and should verify unusual requests through a separate trusted channel. Out-of-office replies should direct legitimate enquiries appropriately without disclosing unnecessary personal details or detailed absence arrangements.
Confirm third-party and facility dependencies
Internal preparation can still fail when a critical supplier is unavailable. Check holiday support arrangements for internet and telecommunications providers, cloud and software vendors, data centre or hosting providers, cyber security providers, hardware support and building access.
Record the support number or portal, customer identifier, service coverage, escalation route, authorised contacts and any planned maintenance. Confirm that the nominated holiday responder is authorised to open and escalate a case.
Plan the return to normal operations
Include the first working days after the closure in the plan. Schedule a review of monitoring alerts, backup and scheduled-job results, security events, unresolved incidents, storage capacity, deferred changes, temporary access and open vendor cases.
Document what created avoidable work during the break. Noisy alerts, unclear ownership, outdated instructions and manual processes should become assigned improvement actions rather than recurring problems at the next closure.
"While most staff are on leave, IT teams continue monitoring security, maintaining uptime, applying critical updates and responding to incidents so the business remains operational and protected.”
This work is largely invisible when it is effective. It depends on continuous visibility, an agreed escalation path, controlled maintenance and access to people who can act when an alert requires attention. The aim is not to keep every IT employee on call. It is to make sure the right coverage exists for the systems and risks that matter during the closure.
Need a second pair of eyes before your office closes?
Advance Vision Technology can review monitoring, patching, backup, remote access and support arrangements to help identify gaps before the holiday period.
