Navigating DORA with Calico: Strengthening Kubernetes Operational Resilience in Financial Services

The Challenge DORA Seeks to Solve What is DORA? Why DORA Matters for Kubernetes 5 Ways Calico Products Can Help with DORA Compliance Granular Network Microsegmentation and Policy Enforcement Comprehensive Network Observability Threat Detection and Mitigation Automated Compliance Reporting and Audit Trails Secure Multi-Cluster and Hybrid Cloud Operations Mapping DORA Requirements to Calico Capabilities Summary A single cyberattack or system outage can threaten not just one financial institution, but the stability of a vast portion of the entire financial sector. For today’s financial enterprises, securing dynamic infrastructure like Kubernetes is a core operational and regulatory challenge. The solution lies in achieving DORA compliance for Kubernetes, which transforms your cloud-native infrastructure into a resilient, compliant, and secure backbone for critical financial services. Before DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act), rules for financial companies primarily focused on making sure they had enough financial capital to cover losses. But what if a cyberattack or tech failure brought a large part of the financial system down? Even with plenty of financial capital, a major outage could stop most operations and cause big problems for the whole financial market. DORA steps in to fix this. It’s all about making sure financial firms can withstand, respond to, and recover quickly from cyberattacks and other digital disruptions. The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a European Union (EU) regulation that came into effect on January 17, 2025 and is designed to strengthen the security of financial entities. It establishes uniform requirements across the financial sector for managing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) risk, reporting major ICT-related incidents, conducting digital operational resilience testing, and overseeing ICT third-party risk. DORA applies to a broad range of financial entities, including banks, insurance companies, investment firms, payment service providers, and their ICT third-party service providers, ensuring a consolidated and robust approach to digital resilience across the European Union. Kubernetes is the standard for deploying and managing cloud-native containerized applications, offering unparalleled agility, scalability, and efficiency. However, this power comes bundled with complexity.