Introduction

Data spaces are digital environments where data is collected, stored, managed and shared in a secure and controlled manner between different organizations or users. These spaces are designed to facilitate data sharing while respecting privacy, data ownership and appropriate governance principles.

European Initiatives

There are several European Initiatives aimed at data spaces. Currently the two most current ones are Gaia-X and IDSA.

GAIA-X and IDSA are closely related in their mission to build a secure, interoperable and sovereign data infrastructure in Europe. From an implementation point of view, the data connectors developed by IDSA are fundamental to the implementation of GAIA-X, allowing organizations to connect their data systems to the GAIA-X network in a secure and standardized way.

Let's take a look at what each of them consists of.

Gaia-X

Open

This is a European initiative whose objective is to create a secure, federated and sovereign data infrastructure that promotes innovation, competitiveness and technological independence in Europe. It is a collaborative project that involves governments, companies, and organizations from various sectors, seeking to establish a reliable and decentralized digital ecosystem.

IDSA

Open

The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) is an international organization dedicated to the promotion of standards and architectures for the creation of secure and trusted data spaces. The IDSA was founded to develop and promote a reference architecture and standards framework for the secure and controlled exchange of data between enterprises, thereby facilitating collaboration and innovation in the digital economy.

Integrating IDSA connectors into Onesait Platform

For several years, the Onesait Platform team has been involved in several European R&D projects focused on the development of data spaces using IDSA connectors. Some of these projects are:

• Platoon: European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 872592.

• Pharaon: European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 857188.

• DS2: European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.101135967, and by UK Research and Innovation under the UK government.

Platoon

In the Platoon project, one of the use cases implemented was the exchange of information between data platforms using the IDS True Connector. Specifically, the connection between Minsait's Onesait Platform and Tecnalia's data platform was implemented.

In this use case, the Onesait Platform was storing measurements from an electrical substation. Tecnalia's platform, using the connector, requested data to run prediction algorithms on this data. Finally, Onesait Platform, also using the connector, periodically requested the results of the predictions.

From an implementation point of view, the integration of the True Connector with Onesait Platform was done using Onesait Platform's DataFlow module.

Pharaon

In the Pharaon project, a data exchange use case was implemented between a SmartHabits platform, managed by Ericsson Nikola Tesla, and Onesait Platform, managed by Minsait. In this case the connector used was EDC Connector (Eclipse Dataspace Components Connector) and extensions provided by Sovity that facilitate its deployment and use.

In this use case, the SmartHabits platform sent data using the connector to Onesait Platform for display on dashboards.

DS2

In July 2024, the Data Space | Data Share (DS2) project is working on the definition of an architecture for the interconnection of data spaces. Minsait's role in the project is both to participate in the definition of the architecture and the implementation of several of the modules identified. In this case, the reference connector will also be EDC Connector, and several existing data spaces will be used to deploy and test the modules developed.