According to a study on Gaia-X ecosystems, competitors are missing source code and prototypes for reference services. High-tech frills are not in demand.
With Gaia-X, a digital ecosystem is to be created in which data can be made available, collected and exchanged in a trustworthy environment. Since the idea was announced in 2019, the focus has shifted from a European cloud project to data rooms that are as interconnected as possible in the form of so-called federations. Corresponding Gaia-X Federation Services (GXFS) are already defined. But what competitors particularly miss are the associated source texts and applications.
Disclosure of the source texts required
“So far there are no codes, no prototypes and nothing ‘to try out’,” complain the authors of a voonze online available study for strategies for building Gaia-X ecosystems with the help of the federation services, which the analysis manager Jens Böcker presented on Thursday at the conference ” GXFS Connect” by the eco Association of the Internet Economy. Even alpha versions are welcome to make the federation services more tangible. Those responsible for the project unanimously asked for earlier disclosure of the necessary source texts in order to be able to simulate the interaction of all services.
The eco is working on developing the GXFS basic modules for the European showcase project. In the first round, the focus is on core services such as an identity service, a directory of available federated offers, sovereign data exchange, a portal, comprehensive integration and monitoring compliance with rules such as encryption, data protection standards and interoperability. The Federal Ministry of Economics is supporting this project with around 13.5 million euros.
These technical building blocks should form the basis for the desired ecosystems and network offers. The best-known example is the “Auto-Cloud” Catena-X, to which automobile manufacturers and suppliers, dealer associations and outfitters have joined forces. One goal of this is to enable a standardized exchange of data across supply chains. Further data rooms are to be created with projects such as Marispace-X for maritime applications, Merlot for educational information and Dataloft for health data.
The Gaia-X federation services are “in the implementation phase and are now available in a first version” as part of funded lighthouse projects, according to the foreword of the study. What is meant by this is the GXFS toolbox. This is intended to provide open source reference code in a timely manner in order to develop applications and services that meet the requirements of their respective federation. The source code should be regarded as a reference implementation, writes eco, “to promote interoperability between the ecosystems”.
minimum requirement
The finished GXFS represent a “minimum requirement”, explain the authors of the study. “All functionalities that are also required for specific industries and projects should and can be additionally programmed by the respective projects.” For example, customized services could be set up that “support the authentication and authorization of other participants in a federation”.
Services are also in demand, for example, “that create transparency and enable control over data use”. It must be prevented under all circumstances “that an accidental merging of formerly separate data” counteracts an already carried out anonymization. Ultimately, the idea behind the GXFS is to “transform the existing laws for data exchange and information and exchange rights into digital rules of the game”.
“Success requires a critical mass of participants who trust the whole thing,” the study continues. “If this is provided better and faster by a private provider”, this will prevail over Gaia-X. Some previous proponents of the approach, such as Scaleway, have already backed down. Gaia-X must “now also show that it is the right way up,” Böcker warned to hurry. It is now important to prove trustworthy reference services and the added value of data sharing and then to make them the standard in the market.
A lot to do
The need is there, said Felix Beckmann, digital expert at Airbus Operations. Many companies are ready for data exchange, but the right infrastructure is missing. Most of them didn’t want to upload measured values, information from sensors or sensitive financial data “to a hyperscaler where they no longer have control over it”. US cloud giants such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft have long been on board with Gaia-X. In order to participate, they must adhere to the common canon of values ​​with guidelines such as openness, transparency, sovereignty and self-determination.
“We need some kind of security seal,” emphasized Peter Kraemer, who scientifically accompanies Gaia-X at the acatech Academy of Technology. The GXFS offer a “shortcut to get to a technology that enables a sovereign data economy”. The researcher was confident that medium-sized companies in Germany would benefit the most. But it’s about time to show: “That also works, by the way.”
Harald Wagener, Cloud and IT group manager at the Charité, compared the federal services to a “rope over the gorge” on which a bridge could be built. The Berlin University Hospital is currently in the process of planning a relevant practical “pierce” with the “smallest possible activity” of a citizen in the healthcare system: retrieving a file with personal information from the hospital, which the user can then make available to selected third parties. On the basis of this route, the Charité wants to expand Gaia-X services on the left and right and integrate additional ones from the outside.
The requirements and specifications have now been largely developed, followed by the code, explained Roland Fadrany, head of operations at the non-profit Gaia-X society in Brussels. At the same time, he emphasized: “For me, Gaia-X is not an IT project.” The federation services are technically a great support. First of all, however, everyone who is interested must know for themselves what they are doing and what they want to achieve. Digital sovereignty is not a switch that can simply be set to a certain level.
Create low barriers to entry
For Fadrany, it’s important to keep the entry barriers as low as possible: “It can’t be some high-tech gimmick.” Large corporations in particular also have certain fears of sharing data. The benefits of this should therefore be better explained. The Austrian named the development of a battery passport with the University of Graz as an example, for which data from drivers, suppliers and car manufacturers is required. A link could communicate the available capacity in a tamper-proof manner and, if necessary, increase the resale value. If navigation or temperature data were added, “more interesting models” could also be driven with artificial intelligence (AI).
Eco board member Oliver Süme conceded that the consortia that set up data rooms still have to overcome a number of challenges, not only from a technical but also from a legal point of view. In Europe, for example, there are different expectations of contract design and liability, and it shouldn’t “become German history”. So far, the GFXS toolbox has not contained any billing options: “Where you offer payment services, you are subject to very strict regulatory requirements.” You didn’t necessarily want to accept mistakes in their implementation on the first serve.
