The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) requires financial entities to prove they can withstand, respond to, and recover from ICT disruptions. Proving this requires more than policy documents—it requires resilient code.
Resilience by Design
DORA mandates that you test your recovery capabilities. If your Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is a 40-page PDF that nobody has tested in 2 years, you are non-compliant.
Key Architecture Shifts
- Multi-Region Active/Active: Moving away from "Cold Standby". In modern cloud systems (using DynamoDB Global Tables or Aurora Global), you can run simultaneously in Dublin and Frankfurt. If one region falls, the other takes over instantly with zero data loss.
- Circuit Breakers: Ensuring that one failing 3rd-party API doesn't crash your entire banking portal.
Vendor Risk Management
DORA also holds you accountable for your 3rd-party providers (CTPPs). You need to engineer "Exit Strategies". If your primary cloud provider shuts down, how fast can you move? Containerization (Kubernetes) is your best hedge here.