The name change from former Industrial Data Space to International Data Space(IDS) raises the claim to internationality and thus a counter-concept to the often too lax handling of data security, data sovereignty and secure data exchange. The IDS Reference Architecture Model provides this value proposition and sets international standards.
From research to business
The technological principles for Industrial Data Space are being developed in the context of research. Currently the Industrial Data Space research project being carried out at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is of key importance. The pre-competition project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
„Digitization creates and uses data. Within the context of this social, economic and technical development, data have become a product in their own right. As an economic asset, they form the basis for new value creating processes and business models. But in daily business practice data are often used and exchanged sparingly. Companies are too worried about losing control over their data – and with that their valuable company knowledge. This is where International Data Spaces (IDS) comes in: with an architecture for virtual data spaces which guarantees the secure and sovereign exchange of their data assets.
Digitization: utilizing advantages without increasing risks
Who is allowed to use which data? For what purpose? For which period? Under which conditions? IDS wants to answer these questions with clear, legally compliant guidelines, internationally recognized standards and secure technology. “Our aim is to set up the infrastructure for the shared use of data in order to take care of the complex topic of data exchange, security, rights and data transfer for companies”, explains Lars Nagel, Managing Director of the International Data Spaces Association, founded 2016 and located with its head office in Dortmund.
Active part in designing the architecture of the IDS
With the establishment of the International Data Spaces Association, business and industry take an active part in designing the architecture of the IDS. More than 80 companies and institutions from 16 countries are members of the association. The strategic initiative with respect to the IDS aims to guarantee data sovereignty by a peer-to-peer network which provides usage control of industrial data. The International Data Spaces Association pools the requirements on IDS, organizes the knowledge exchange between research and business and develops guidelines for the certification, standardization and utilization of the results emerging from the different IDS related research projects on European and national level“.
(International Data Space Association, April 2018)
