GAIA-X Enters the Next Phase

IDSA and GAIA-X are the perfect fit 

Data is an essential resource for economic growth, competitiveness and innovation in Europe. GAIA-X’s mission is to strengthen digital sovereignty by empowering the development of innovation ecosystems. This means that individuals, organizations and communities stay in complete control over stored and processed data and are enabled to take independent decision on who is permitted to have access to it. 

“The IDS reference architecture serves as an initial impulse for GAIA-X. As a basis for an open ecosystem, it enables provider and consumer of data to connect in a secure, interoperable and sovereign way”, says Dr. Reinhold Achatz, CTO of thyssenkrupp and chairman of the board of IDSA. “Combined with highly available storage and efficient processing of data, GAIA-X has the potential to create a secure and trustworthy data infrastructure based on European values.” 

IDSA – a non-profit organization with 110 members from 20 countries – contributes the knowledge and technology to help shorten the time-to-market, a community of practice and a network of international hubs and liaisons to support knowledge sharing and building up of required skills in the data economy across Europe and beyond European borders. 

GAIA-X Foundation to make trustworthy data sharing ecosystems happen 

To enable companies to use services with the value proposition of IDSA and GAIA-X, the data infrastructure needs to be implemented on an operational level, based on commonly accepted standards and policy rules. To this end, 22 companies from Germany and from France, will establish the GAIA-X Foundation. The non-profit organization will strive to stabilize and facilitate work and cooperation within the GAIA-X community, to set up the architecture of standards for GAIA-X and the necessary services making trustworthy data sharing ecosystems a reality. 

IDSA will be a founding member of the GAIA-X Foundation and will help to drive international cooperation in the areas of Digital sovereignty and standardization. The mutually and by all members consensually agreed IDS reference architecture on data sovereignty will be a central element of the GAIA-X architecture of standards. It also meets the requirements from more than 50 industry-driven projects from all domains. “We strongly support the GAIA-X Foundation, contributing our expertise and our network of association members. Many partners of the GAIA Foundation are already active in IDSA, and together we will set an important milestone for the European economy”, says Lars Nagel, CEO of IDSA.