Separate Icelandic access from international access
Identify whether the service is mainly for people in Iceland or for a wider audience. Test both groups with representative networks and tasks. A satisfactory local result does not establish the experience of international visitors, and an international test alone may miss the needs of domestic users.
Check every dependency that crosses the boundary
List the services the Reykjavík application contacts, including databases, storage, authentication and third-party APIs. Measure operations that move data in both directions. Which requests depend on an international connection, and what does the application show when that dependency is slow or unavailable?
Plan recovery around independent dependencies
Choose a backup destination by the failure it should survive, then verify the actual network and operator arrangements. An island location alone does not prove resilience or isolation. Keep a recoverable copy outside the primary failure boundary and confirm that it can be reached when the usual service path is disrupted.
Rehearse relocation before the application depends on it
Restore a small test deployment in the intended recovery region. Check the operating system, required resources, secrets and DNS changes, then verify access from the expected audience. If the application accepts writes, decide how to stop or reconcile them during a move so recovery does not silently discard recent changes.