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Gaia-X

Data infrastructure development project From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Gaia-X is an initiative to develop a plan to potentially develop a federated secure data infrastructure for Europe, whereby data are shared, with users retaining control over their data access and usage, and according to some to ensure European digital sovereignty.[1] It aims to develop digital governance, based on European values of transparency, openness, data protection, and security,[2] which can be applied to cloud technologies to obtain transparency and controllability across data and services.[3] The project name is a reference to the Greek goddess Gaia.[4]

Gaia-X started as an initiative by the former German Minister of Economic Affairs, Peter Altmaier, and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, in 2019. Originally presented at the 2019 Digital Summit in Dortmund, Germany, the initiative is under the von der Leyen Commission of European strategic autonomy[5] and is under continuous development.[6] The initiative is based in Belgium and has the legal form of an international non-profit organization (AISBL). It aims to develop a proposal for the next generation of data infrastructure for Europe, and promote the digital sovereignty of European users of cloud services.

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Goals

The aim of Gaia-X is to foster digital sovereignty aligned with European values.[7]

So to do, Gaia-X is supporting ecosystems where data can be exchanged in a trustworthy way and owners keep sovereignty over their data, thus easing the growth of data economy.[8]

To do so, Gaia-X is releasing standards, rules and a verification framework to enable transparent environments to spread for data exchanges.

According to the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi), openness, transparency and European connectivity are central to Gaia-X. The stated goal of this digital ecosystem is to ensure that companies and business models from Europe can be competitive, and share data within a trustworthy environment.[6]

Gaia-X's objective is not to become a Cloud service provider or a Cloud management platform. The implementation of Gaia-X is described as not being intended to create a competing product to existing offers (e.g. hyperscalers).

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Solutions

According to its project statement, the project aims to combine existing central and decentralized infrastructures to form a "digital ecosystem" using secure, open technologies with clearly identifiable Gaia-X nodes.[9] The ecosystem will have software components from a common repository, and standards based on relevant EU regulations.[10] Gaia-X intends to offer significant benefits from a data and infrastructure perspective, including innovative cross-sector data cooperation and more transparent business models.[10]

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Deliverables

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Gaia-X AISBL is responsible for the following deliverables:[11]

  • Specifications describing Gaia-X functional and technical requirements
  • Code, provided by the Gaia-X Open Source Software Community, translating the forementioned specifications
  • Labels certifying compliance to the governance rules written in the specifications

Specifications

Gaia-X provides the following specifications to describe Gaia-X concepts:

  • The Gaia-X Architecture Document[12] explains concepts and requirements for technical and syntaxical interoperability - no link with governance rules
  • The Gaia-X Compliance Document[13] expresses all the rules to follow to enable organisational and semantical interoperability - no link with technical requirements
  • The Gaia-X Identity, Credentials and Access Management Document[14] specifies how to deal with rights, authentication and access when interacting with a Gaia-X Ecosystem
  • The Gaia-X Data Exchange Document[15] explains process and rules for data exchanges in the Gaia-X world

Code

Gaia-X specifications are turned into code by the Gaia-X Open Source Software community.

This code is an example of implementation of Gaia-X concepts and rules, creating software modules.[16]

Two versions of these components are available so far:[17]

  • Version 1 named TAGUS
  • Version 2 named LOIRE

Labels

A Gaia-X Label is issued by a Gaia-X Digital Clearing House when the proofs given by the requestor fulfil the requirements expressed in the Gaia-X Compliance Document, aligning with Gaia-X values of trust, transparency, security and interoperability.

Four Labels are available so far:

  • Gaia-X Standard
  • Gaia-X Label level 1
  • Gaia-X Label level 2
  • Gaia-X Label level 3

Use cases

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Live use cases[18] nowadays demonstrate how Gaia-X concepts could ease data space management or data exchange

Lighthouse Data Spaces

Some data spaces are recognised by the Gaia-X AISBL as the best examples to showcase how Gaia-X concepts can foster European data sovereignty and value creation.

These data spaces span accross diverse sectors such as the automotive, aeronautics and space or manufacturing industry, but also cloud services.

Lighthouse Projects

Lighthouse Projects aims to create data exchange platforms based on transparency, trust and openess. Mainy sectors are targetted, like agriculture, mobility, industry, health, energy or finance.

This projects are the frontrunners towards setting up trust for data exchanges and data services thanks to use of the Gaia-X Trust Framework

Use case testimonials

Some testimonials[19] are also published by the Gaia-X AISBL to better understand how Gaia-X Concepts are enabling secure and trustworthy data exchanges, thanks to down-to-earth examples.

These examples, spanning from road condition monitoring, to perfect component fit within the manufacturing industry, are the following ones:

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Gaia-X Digital Clearing Houses

Gaia-X Digital Clearing Houses[20] are the entry point where participants or data services can be automatically scanned regarding Gaia-X conformity rules.

They are organised in a network of nodes and are running the technical Gaia-X components linked to Gaia-X Conformity (Gaia-X Registry or Gaia-X Compliance engine for example), as expressed in the Gaia-X Specifications.

Thus, calling one of the Gaia-X Digital Clearing House is the practical way to determine your eligibility to the Gaia-X Conformity rules.

All the Gaia-X Digital Clearing Houses are interconnected, and can be reached independantly.

The list of active Gaia-X Digital Clearing Houses, including the version of code they are running for each component, is provided on a portal powered by Gaia-X AISBL.

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Organisation

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The association: Gaia-X AISBL

Gaia-X AISBL was established early 2021[21] as an international private non-profit association under Belgian law (French: Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif, short: AISBL) and headquartered in Brussels.

Gaia-X AISBL is funded by the annual fees from its 250 members (private companies, associations, or universities for example).

Its General Assembly, where all the members of the assocation have a seat, has full authority to ensure that Gaia-X AISBL goals are reached.[22]

A Board of Directors, elected every 2 years, decided on important matters on behalf of all members and for the Association.[23]

The Management Team of the Association is composed of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Operating Officer (COO), the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the Digital Communications Director. It runs the daily activities of the Association.[24]

Committees and Working Groups

To be able to work on the several subjects in Gaia-X AISBL scope, tasks has been dispatched between operational committees and working groups: [25]

  • The Data and Services Business Committee aims to collect and share business information linked to Gaia-X in order to speed up market adoption. It is powered by the Sounding Boards dealing with local hubs, industrial domains or ITC service providers.
  • The Policy Rules Committee aims to translate Gaia-X principles (transparency, data protection, cybersecurity, portability, openess) into rules and objectives in order to add value to the ecosystems using them. This committee is organised in sprints.
  • The Technical Committee designs and implements the technological vision about Gaia-X. Some working groups have been set up to deal with architecture, data exchange services, or identity, credentials and access management.

The access to these committees and working groups are mainly dedicated to Gaia-X AISBL members, enabling them to shape the future of data exchange and data services.

Origin

The Gaia-X AISBL has been created at the beginning of 2021 by 11 French organisations and 11 German Organisations. The founding members on the German side[26] included:

The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, the International Data Spaces Association, and the European cloud provider association CISPE were co-founders of the Gaia-X Association.

On the French side, founding members included:

Since then, the number of members grew constantly, enabling the association to cover all its costs thanks to the membership fees.

The Association is also involved in a project founded by the European Commission. This project, the Data Space Support Center (DSSC) has been launched in 2022 for 42 months.[27]

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Communities

Gaia-X Ecosystems

Gaia-X Ecosystems[28] are portals to discover Gaia-X but also to get in touch with organisations and companies aiming to produce solution for data and interoperable data spaces. These ecosystems are gathering several profiles (business, industry, researchers, etc.) but all targetting one dedicated topic or domain, such as health or agriculture for example.

Gaia-X Hubs

Gaia-X Hubs[29] are a network of local entry point in each countries. They are not part of the Gaia-X AISBL, but work closely with it as a lab for Gaia-X Projects, sharing use cases, knowledge, skills and resources.

Open Source Community

The Gaia-X AISBL relies on its Open Source Software Community,[30] playing a key role in the development of the code released.

This code can be used by everyone, but also contributions and ideas are welcome as well.

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Implementation

The planned architecture was described in a June 2020 publication.[31] On 12 January 2021, the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University in Germany announced the implementation of a secure, decentralized, IoT data space based on the Gaia-X model.[32] A total of 4 locations were connected, one by Fraunhofer IPT.

Senseering, WZL, Fraunhofer IPT, and Fraunhofer FIT were planning to establish a state-wide Gaia-X compliant IoT data space for the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the DataMarketPlace.NRW.[33]

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Political support

The then German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, Peter Altmaier, supported by the French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, initiated Gaia-X as a project during the summer of 2019.[34] They issued a common press release in October 2019,[35] and a first Franco-German Position Paper followed on 18 February 2020.[36]

A specific joined press conference took place, with both Altmaier and Le Maire, in June 2020 (source: programme), including the announcement, by the 22 Founding Members, of the Gaia-X Association AISBL. That announcement achieved broad press coverage: Reuters,[37] AFP, Politico,[38] El Pais,[39] Les Echos,[40] Business Insider,[41] TagesSpiegel,[42] and Europe1.[43]

In September 2020, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, mentioned Gaia-X in her first State of the Union Address[44] in front of the European Parliament, as a key building block of the European Digital Strategy.

Will Hutton, writing in The Guardian in October 2020, indicated Gaia‑X is part of a wider strategy to tackle the abuse of personal privacy and monopoly status by US‑based tech giants.[45]

Controversies

Early in the Gaia-X project, open source software advocates warned against corporate capture of Gaia-X by large companies. They referred to Gaia-X as a possible Trojan horse of big tech in Europe, and made comparisons to the French State-sponsored cloud project Andromeda that had been launched 10 years earlier and which resulted in public funds benefiting large non-European industry players.[46]

In November 2021, the French cloud provider Scaleway, one of the founding members of Gaia-X, announced it was leaving the association. Other participants expressed doubts about the initiative's net benefits.[47]

Gaia-X has registered delays in its implementation due to infighting between its corporate members. Participants from companies and government have expressed disappointment with the project.[1]

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See also

References

External links

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