The 5 Pillars of Resilience: What is DORA?
Published on June 17, 2025,
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Understanding DORA Compliance and Its Impact on Financial Institutions
This article explores how financial institutions can achieve DORA compliance by aligning with the five pillars of digital operational resilience. The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a landmark EU regulation designed to strengthen the financial sector’s ability to withstand and recover from ICT-related disruptions. By focusing on ICT risk management, incident reporting, resilience testing, third-party risk oversight, and information sharing, DORA sets a unified framework for operational stability. However, many organizations struggle with fragmented systems and outdated tools, making compliance a significant challenge.
DORA introduces a standardized framework across five key areas to ensure the resilience and stability of the financial sector.
The 5 Pillars of DORA Compliance for Digital Operational Resilience
DORA's framework is built on five key pillars that create a comprehensive structure for digital resilience.
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.
Overcoming Visibility Challenges in Achieving DORA Compliance
For many financial organizations, the path to DORA compliance is obstructed by outdated data management practices. Reliance on disparate spreadsheets and legacy databases creates significant blind spots in the ICT environment.
- Obscure risk visibility.
- Complicate incident impact analysis.
- Hinder regulatory compliance.
This fragmentation obscures risk visibility complicates the analysis of an incident's true impact and ultimately hinders the ability to demonstrate regulatory compliance effectively. Without a single, unified view, institutions are operating with incomplete information, making resilience difficult to achieve and prove.
How Nlyte Supports DORA Compliance with Real-Time Infrastructure Management
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’s Tool Kit for Streamlining DORA Compliance Across ICT Environments
| 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 DCIM is not just about meeting regulations. It's about building a more resilient, efficient, and secure organization. The benefits form a virtuous cycle where improved operations directly enhance your compliance posture.
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