The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is once again preparing to begin tracking Santa Claus as he makes his journey around the world on Christmas Eve. It has been a tradition for NORAD to monitor the saint since 1955.
In recent years he has even collaborated with Microsoft to create the Santa Tracker website at NORADSanta.org.
This year, Microsoft revealed that it has made some improvements to the Santa Tracker website.
In a post at official Azure Maps blog, reports that it has updated the tracker with a JavaScript-based website hosted in six Azure regions around the world and available in nine different languages.
Some of the services used to build the site include Azure Static Web Apps, Azure Functions, and Azure Maps. This service is used by the website to create an interactive map of the entire world so that visitors can follow specific traditions in many other countries.
The site also uses Azure Front Door to keep the site loading fast, especially during this long night coming up. Microsoft states:
Using Azure Front Door involves caching the site in 192 Points of Presence (POP) in major cities worldwide. This widespread distribution greatly enhances the speed of file delivery by ensuring that files are physically closer to end users.
The Santa Tracker website has plenty of things to see long before Santa makes his trip on Christmas Eve. It includes video messages from the big man himself, an article discussing whether Santa Claus is real, and festive music tracks you can listen to straight from the site.
