GAIA-X

GAIA-X is a project for the development of an efficient and competitive, secure and trustworthy federation of data infrastructure and service providers for Europe, which is supported by representatives of business, science and administration from Germany and France, together with other European partners. The name of the project is derived from one of the first Greek deities, Gaia, who arose from chaos and who, in mythology, stands as the personified earth for the woman giving birth. The project was first presented to the general public at the Digital Summit 2019 in Dortmund (Germany) and has been continuously developed since then. [1]

To achieve its goals, the GAIA-X Association AISBL is in foundation as an international non-profit organization based in Belgium to develop a European project, initiated by France and Germany, to create a proposal for the next generation of a data infrastructure for Europe, and foster digital sovereignty of European users of cloud services. It is based on European values of transparency, openness, data protection and security.[2]

Goals

The objective is to design the next generation of a federated European data infrastructure. Common requirements for a European data infrastructure will be specified and a reference implementation developed. GAIA-X objective is not to become a Cloud Service Provider nor a Cloud Management Platform. Against this background, openness, transparency and European connectivity are central to GAIA-X according to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy. Representatives from several European countries are actively involved in the project. The digital ecosystem is supposed to ensure that companies and business models from Europe can be competitive. The implementation of GAIA-X is not intended to create a competing product to existing offers (e.g. hyperscalers). GAIA-X will link different elements via open interfaces and standards to link data and make them available to a broad audience. GAIA-X will enable the creation of different types of innovation platforms. [3] [4]

Solutions

According to its own project statement, the project objectives are to be achieved by combining existing central and decentralised infrastructures to form a system which together form a "digital ecosystem". Characteristics of this ecosystem are:

  • The use of secure, open technologies (see for example Open Source, Open Hardware),[5]
  • clearly identifiable GAIA nodes,[6]
  • software components from a common repository,[7]
  • standards based on common values and relevant regulations of the EU and its member states,[8]
  • uniform data and service room.[9]

GAIA-X is said to offer the following added value from a data and infrastructure perspective:[10]

  • It should enable a sovereign decision on data-based business models.
  • It is intended to support innovative cross-sector cooperation in order to aggregate and increase the value of data.
  • Fair and transparent business models should be promoted by providing rules and standards for cooperative approaches, including the legally compliant use of data.
  • Common models and rules for data monetization should reduce the complexity and costs of commercializing data.
  • Cross-industry cooperation to create federal, interoperable services will be facilitated.
  • Access to secure, trustworthy and modern IT infrastructures (automated services and API-controlled infrastructures), which increase productivity in software development, is to be facilitated.
  • The loss of company data is to be significantly reduced by recognising and maintaining protection classes and regulations on confidentiality when exchanging data.

GAIA-X Association AISBL

In order to achieve the GAIA-X project goals, it was announced in June 2020 that an international non-profit organisation will be established with headquarters in Brussels. The GAIA-X Association is to be established in the form of an international non-profit association under Belgian law (in French: Association internationale sans but lucratif, short: AISBL) with its headquarters in Brussels. The legal form underlines the European and international perspective and openness of GAIA-X. The founding members on the German side include Beckhoff Automation, BMW, Bosch, DE-CIX, Deutsche Telekom, German Edge Cloud, PlusServer, SAP and Siemens.[11] In addition, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the International Data Spaces Association and the European cloud provider association Cispe are co-founders of the GAIA-X Association. On the French side, Amadeus, Atos, Docaposte, EDF - Électricité de France, IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom, Orange, Outscale, OVHcloud, Safran and Scaleway are among the participants. The development of the necessary components will also be pursued.[12] [13]

GAIA-X Hubs are set up a country level in order to animate the GAIA-X communities locally. Germany and France already has set up hubs. Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Italy already announced to be in the process to do so during the GAIA-X Summit of Novembre 2020.[14]

Political support

GAIA-X has been initiated as a project by the German Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier, immediately supported by the French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire during the summer 2019.[15]

A first common press release from Peter Altmaier and Bruno Le Maire was issued in October 2019.[16]

A first Franco-German Position Paper was published February 18, 2020.[17]

A specific joined press conference took place with both Ministers Peter Altmaier and Bruno Le Maire in June 2020 (source: programme), including the announcement on the GAIA-X Association AISBL by the 22 founding members. That announcement achieved a quite broad press coverage by well-know newswire and newspapers: Reuters,[18] AFP, Politico,[19] El Pais,[20] Les Echos,[21] Business Insider,[22] TagesSpiegel,[23] Europe1.[24]

Will Hutton, writing in The Guardian in October 2020, indicates that GAIA‑X is part of a wider strategy to tackle the abuse of personal privacy and monopoly status by US‑based tech giants.[25]

References
  1. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. "GAIA-X - A Federated Data Infrastructure for Europe". Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  2. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. "GAIA-X vollzieht wichtigen Schritt hin zu einer souveränen europäischen digitalen Infrastruktur" (PDF). Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  3. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. "GAIA-X - A Federated Data Infrastructure for Europe". Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  4. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. "Schlaglichter der Wirtschaftspolitik". September 2020: 10–17. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. "FAQs on the GAIA-X project". Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  6. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. "FAQs on the GAIA-X project". Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  7. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie. "FAQs on the GAIA-X project". Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  8. "GAIA-X: The European project kicks off the next phase" (PDF). June 2020: 3. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. "GAIA-X: The European project kicks off the next phase" (PDF). June 2020: 3. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. "GAIA-X: The European project kicks off the next phase" (PDF). June 2020: 3. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. "Offizieller Start der Gaia-X AISBL". www.it-business.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  12. Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (6 June 2020). "Germany and France take the lead as Europe makes first step towards building a European data infrastructure". Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  13. Happacher, Meinrad (8 June 2020). "GAIA-X Start der Nutzergruppe". Computer & Automation. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  14. https://events.talque.com/gaia-x-summit/en/6iq6yI5LPSxaIRA6cmnq?talque=lecture-list&lectureId=nYBjbRFFuIr8fmLUM5iJ
  15. "Peter Altmaier and Bruno Le Maire present the European data infrastructure project GAIA-X". www.data-infrastructure.eu.
  16. "Press Release on Franco-German common work on a secure and trustworthy data infrastructure". www.data-infrastructure.eu.
  17. https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Downloads/F/franco-german-position-on-gaia-x.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=10
  18. http://www.reuters.com%2Farticle%2Fus-europe-tech%2Ffrance-germany-back-european-cloud-computing-moonshot-idUSKBN23B26B&usg=AOvVaw0jL3LEDEkefEfrPP9sEGLG
  19. "Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for 'tech sovereignty'". POLITICO. June 4, 2020.
  20. Ayuso, Silvia (June 4, 2020). "Europa lanza Gaia-X para disputar el control de la nube a Amazon, Microsoft o Google". EL PAÍS.
  21. http://www.lesechos.fr%2Ftech-medias%2Fhightech%2Fle-cloud-europeen-franco-allemand-devoile-ses-services-numeriques-souverains-1208046
  22. Aguiar, Alberto R. (June 4, 2020). "Qué es GAIA-X, la respuesta europea para dejar de depender de la nube de Amazon, Google o Microsoft que ya prepara sus primeros prototipos para 2021". Business Insider.
  23. "Wie das europäische Projekt die US-Dominanz bei Clouds beenden soll". www.tagesspiegel.de.
  24. "Gaia-X : le couple Franco-Allemand lance un "cloud" européen". Europe 1.
  25. Hutton, Will (18 October 2020). "Europe and America are taking on the tech giants. Britain needs to join the fight". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
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