Iron Fort Solutions Pattern 2 · Enterprise A
Adoption plan

Dedicated Iron Fort infrastructure

How the organisation starts using it, and what "running" looks like.

Pattern  Dedicated infrastructure, open only to your IP ranges For  Small and mid-sized enterprises
Iron Fort You Together

Same adoption path as the managed tier, with one addition: the allowlist is a live dependency. If your network changes and nobody tells us, people lose access on a Monday morning and blame the platform.

1

Wire the allowlist into your change process

You
  • Add "notify Iron Fort" to whatever process changes office or VPN egress addresses.
  • Name a second person who can raise that change, so it does not depend on one calendar.
  • Test access from a new location before you need it, not after.

Done whenA network change has been made and access survived it.

2

Give it an owner

You
  • Name one person accountable for the programme. Not a committee — programmes with three owners have none.
  • Name control owners per domain: access, change, backup, vendor, training. These are the people who will be asked for evidence.
  • Agree who signs off a policy and who accepts a risk. Write both down before you need them.

Done whenEvery control set in scope has a named owner who knows they own it.

3

Pilot on one framework

Together
  • Pick the framework you are actually being asked for. Adding a second later reuses this work; starting with two doubles the argument about scope.
  • Run a gap analysis and accept that the first number will be low. It is a baseline, not a grade.
  • Work the top ten gaps only. Breadth comes after the team believes the tool.

Done whenOne framework has a real coverage figure the owner recognises as true.

4

Bring in the control owners

You
  • Walk each owner through their own controls, not the whole platform. Fifteen minutes each beats one hour-long all-hands.
  • Show them the evidence request queue and how to close an item.
  • Set the expectation that evidence is filed when the work happens, not the week before an audit.

Done whenOwners are closing their own evidence requests without being chased.

5

Set the rhythm

You
  • Put policy reviews, access recertification and risk assessment on the schedule with real dates.
  • Agree a monthly half-hour where the owner reviews coverage and overdue items. Short and regular beats long and quarterly.
  • Turn on notifications for expiring evidence, so the system chases instead of a person.

Done whenA month passes with no manual chasing and nothing falls overdue.

6

Open it outward

Together
  • Publish the trust page and put the link where sales can reach it.
  • Give your assessor scoped read-only access rather than exporting a folder of screenshots.
  • Generate the reports your auditor asks for and check they say what you expect before the audit, not during it.

Done whenA customer security questionnaire is answered with a link.

7

Add the second framework

Together
  • Install it and let the overlap map itself against the evidence you already hold.
  • Work only the delta. This is where the platform pays for itself, and the team will feel it.
  • Review the control profile: comprehensive where it matters, lighter where it does not.

Done whenThe second framework reaches useful coverage in a fraction of the first one's effort.

Sequence, not schedule. The phases are ordered by dependency. Elapsed time depends on your change process, your approvals and how much of the estate is in scope, so this plan does not guess at it. Ask us and we will estimate it against your specifics.

Iron Fort Solutions · goironfort.com/reference-architecture