Impact on Software as a Service (SaaS) with DORA Regulations

The enactment of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) marks a significant milestone in the European Union's efforts to bolster the operational resilience of the financial sector.

While DORA primarily targets financial entities, its impact extends to various service providers, including Software as a Service (SaaS) providers.  

Let's explore how DORA regulations influence the landscape of SaaS offerings and what steps SaaS providers can take to ensure compliance and enhance security. 

1. Requirements: DORA imposes strict requirements on financial entities to enhance their digital operational resilience, covering areas such as ICT risk management, incident reporting, operational resilience testing, and third-party risk monitoring. While SaaS providers may not be directly regulated under DORA, their services play a crucial role in supporting the operational resilience of financial institutions. 

2. The impact: SaaS providers catering to the financial sector must align their offerings with DORA regulations to meet the heightened expectations for security, reliability, and transparency. Key areas of impact include security posture assessment, incident management procedures, data protection measures, and compliance with regional data protection regulations such as GDPR. 

3. Compliance: To enable compliance with DORA regulations, SaaS providers can leverage security shield platforms which offer comprehensive security and compliance capabilities tailored to the unique needs of SaaS applications in the financial sector. These softwares facilitate security identity management, misconfiguration management, threat detection, data management, and compliance with GDPR requirements. 

As financial institutions strive to comply with DORA regulations and enhance their operational resilience, the role of SaaS providers becomes increasingly critical.

By aligning their offerings with DORA requirements and leveraging specialised platforms, SaaS providers can not only meet regulatory expectations but also strengthen trust and confidence among their financial clients. 

For further reading, check out our previous blogs on DORA:
The changing landscape of the Digital Operational Resilience Act and direct and indirect benefits
The Multi-cloud Advantage: Leveraging DORA for HSM Payments Infrastructure 

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Who is A24?

Global Payments and Data Security Services Provider

At A24 we tackle complex and difficult to manage critical system challenges securely and compliantly. We’re an expert cloud adjacent business that has grown from our 2006 IaaS origins in Japan. Our unique technical capabilities have developed from A24’s 15+ year heritage of building, monitoring and managing highly engineered IT infrastructure.