Build/Buy¶
Standards and Architecture · Working Draft · Updated August 24, 2026
DragonPay will be implemented in either Azure or AWS. The choice will be based on new hire experience more than anything. All things being equal, Azure will have a slight edge but easily overridden by resource experience.
| Functionality | DragonPay area | Purchase options | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durable workflow/orchestration | PH-04 | Temporal Cloud, Orkes Conductor, Camunda; AWS Step Functions; Azure Durable Task | Buy: Temporal Cloud |
| Async messaging / work queues | STD-01, PH-04/08/09/12 | AWS SQS/SNS/EventBridge; Azure Service Bus/Event Grid | Buy cloud-native |
| API gateway/security | CX/OX/API boundary | AWS API Gateway; Azure API Management; Kong | Buy cloud-native |
| Operational identity / SSO / RBAC | PH-01 / OX | Auth0, Okta; Entra ID; Cognito | Likely Auth0 unless Azure/AWS makes Entra obvious |
| SMS/email delivery | PH-12 | Twilio + SendGrid; AWS SNS/SES; Azure Communication Services | Twilio/SendGrid |
| External bank-account verification/linking | PH-05 / PP-01 | Plaid Auth, Mastercard Open Banking/Finicity, MX | Plaid first candidate |
| Fraud/risk signals and decision tooling | PH-06 | Alloy, Sardine, Socure | Evaluate; don't commit yet |
| Observability/APM | STD-01 / PH-08 / OX | Datadog; CloudWatch/X-Ray; Azure Monitor/App Insights | Datadog or native + OpenTelemetry |
| Database | PH-03 onward | Aurora PostgreSQL; Azure Database for PostgreSQL | Buy managed Postgres |
| Secrets / encryption keys | STD-01 | AWS Secrets Manager/KMS; Azure Key Vault | Buy cloud-native |
| ACH/file transport | PH-08 / CI-01 | AWS Transfer Family; Azure Blob SFTP; enterprise MFT | Buy cloud-native |
| Historical reporting/BI | PH-13 | Power BI, QuickSight, Snowflake, Databricks | Power BI/QuickSight initially |
| Case management | PH-11 | ServiceNow, Jira Service Management | Build lean initially |
| Reconciliation platform | PH-10 | Modern Treasury, Duco, ReconArt | Build lean initially |
| Integration/iPaaS | PH-08 / CI | MuleSoft, Boomi, Workato | Do not use for core payment execution |