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The 5 Pillars of Resilience: What is DORA?

Published on June 17, 2025,

by Michael Wilson

What is DORA?

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a landmark regulation from the European Union (Regulation EU 2022/2554), effective January 17, 2025. It aims to unify and elevate how financial institutions manage Information and Communication Technology (ICT) risk across the EU.

DORA introduces a standardized framework across five key areas to ensure the resilience and stability of the financial sector.

🏛️ The 5 Pillars of DORA

1. ICT Risk Management

Organizations must:

Identify, protect, detect, and respond to ICT risks.
Maintain a comprehensive and proactive risk management framework.

2. Incident Reporting

Firms are required to:

Standardize how they classify and report major ICT incidents.
Notify authorities promptly and accurately.

3. Resilience Testing

Institutions must:

Regularly test critical systems for vulnerabilities.
Include advanced methods like Threat-Led Penetration Testing (TLPT).

4. Third-Party Risk Management

This involves:

Managing risks from ICT service providers.
Conducting due diligence, monitoring SLAs, and planning exit strategies.

5. Information Sharing

Firms are encouraged to:

Share cyber threat intelligence.
Collaborate to strengthen collective defense.

The Core Challenge: Visibility

Many organizations still rely on spreadsheets and outdated databases, creating blind spots that:

Obscure risk visibility.
Complicate incident impact analysis.
Hinder regulatory compliance.

Nlyte’s Role in DORA Compliance

Nlyte offers a real-time, auditable “single source of truth” for your hybrid infrastructure, replacing manual processes with automation.

Key Capabilities:

DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management): Real-time insights into asset location, power, and environment.
ITAM (IT Asset Management): Full lifecycle tracking and audit trails for all assets.

Nlyte DORA Compliance Tool Kit

Nlyte Feature / Capability	Relevant DORA Pillar	Applicable DORA Article(s)	Compliance Contribution & Rationale
Asset Optimizer / DCIM Inventory	ICT Risk Management	Article 8: Identification	Provides an automated, auditable, and centralized inventory of all ICT assets, their physical locations, and configurations, directly fulfilling the requirement to "identify, classify and document all ICT supported business functions, information assets and ICT assets."
Real-Time Monitoring (Power, Environmental)	ICT Risk Management	Article 9: Protection & Prevention Article 10: Detection	Protects physical assets by monitoring for threshold breaches in power and cooling. Detects anomalous activities (e.g., power spikes, temperature rises) that are often precursors to service-impacting incidents.
Dependency Mapping / Systems Integration	ICT Risk Management Incident Reporting	Article 8: Identification Article 18: Classification	Maps the relationships between physical assets, virtual machines, and business applications. This is crucial for understanding dependencies (Art. 8) and for rapidly assessing the business impact of an incident for correct classification (Art. 18).
Power Failure Simulation / Scenario Modeling	ICT Risk Management Resilience Testing	Article 11: Response & Recovery Article 24: General Testing	Allows entities to test ICT response and recovery plans in a simulated environment without impacting production, directly addressing the need to "test, review, and update their plans" and assess preparedness for disruptions.
Workflow Management / Change Management	ICT Risk Management Governance	Article 5: Governance Article 6: ICT Risk Framework	Automates and standardizes IMAC processes, creating a complete, auditable trail of all changes to the physical infrastructure. This provides tangible evidence of a "sound, comprehensive, and well-documented" management framework.
Audit and Reporting Module	All Pillars	Article 5: Governance Article 20: Reporting Article 28: Register of Info.	Generates the detailed, evidence-based reports required for management oversight, incident reporting to authorities, and maintaining the register of third-party arrangements. Provides the necessary audit trail for compliance verification.
Third-Party Data Integration	Third-Party Risk Management	Article 28: General Principles Article 30: Contractual Provisions	Enables a "trust but verify" approach by allowing a financial entity to independently monitor the resilience (power, environment) of its assets within a third-party colocation facility, verifying SLA and contractual compliance in real-time.

Bottom Line: Compliance That Pays for Itself

Investing in Nlyte isn’t just about meeting regulations—it’s about:

Gaining operational efficiency.
Reducing risk.
Building a resilient, data-driven ICT environment.

Unlock the Path to DORA Compliance

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