European cloud providers have launched an initiative for common infrastructure services that meet Gaia-X requirements. Twenty-eight companies and organizations, including City Network, agreed to make their cloud services Gaia-X compliant. The Lighthouse Structura-X project complements the previous, industry-specific lighthouse initiatives for the automotive sector (Catena X), agriculture (AgriGaia), and finance (EuroDat). Initial certified offerings are expected to be ready by the middle of this year.
“Gaia-X is an important initiative to build the European data sovereignty and as such a priority for City Network. We are happy to work alongside our European peers in developing the digital infrastructure framework”, said Johan Christenson, founder of City Network and VP Innovation.
The initiative emerged on the sidelines of the recent Gaia-X Summit in Milan in November. The German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier had already called for Gaia-X-compatible infrastructure to be built in Europe alongside industry services.
In coordination with the Gaia-X foundation AISBL, seven European providers initially agreed on the common goal. 28 member companies from 10 countries are part of Structura-X: Atos, Aruba.it, DeCix, Deutsche Telekom, Engineering, Noovle, TOP-IX, AssoSoftware, City Network, Cloud&Heat Technologies, CS Group, CSI, EBRC, Elmec, Fabasoft, International Dataspaces, IONOS SE, KPN, Luxinnovation, Mainstream, next layer, OpenNebula Systems, OSISM, ThreeFold Tech, Tietoevry, United Group, and Vivacom.
The members do not just bring infrastructure services to the table. They also agree to utilize (open-source) technology to make the cloud federation services viable. This includes interoperability respecting security and privacy-enabling by design.
“We very much welcome the initiative of the infrastructure providers,” said Max Ahrens, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gaia-X. “The industrial implementation of the Gaia-X standards by cloud and infrastructure providers is an essential building block for functioning data sovereignty in Europe.”
Structura-X invites more cloud service providers (CSP) to join. As an overarching European cloud infrastructure is being created, the common goal is to shape existing infrastructure services into an ecosystem for European data sovereignty. Users will be able to test and deploy their services and data rooms in a Gaia-X-approved infrastructure.
Structura-X will work closely with Gaia-X AISBL, which defines the technical framework for data sovereignty. At the same time, Structura-X will enable the necessary scale for new cross-sector and cross-country collaboration in the cloud, overcoming the previous fragmentation of the European cloud market.
About City Network
City Network is a leading global supplier of IT infrastructure cloud services based on OpenStack. The company delivers public, compliant and private clouds.
City Network is certified according to ISO 9001, 14001, 27001, 27010, 27013, 27017 and 27018 – internationally recognized standards for quality, sustainability and information security. The company’s services are available from more than 20 data centers around the world. With its Compliant Cloud, City Network ensures that customers adhere to demands originating from specific laws and regulations concerning auditing, reputability, data handling and data security, such as Basel, Solvency and GDPR. City Network is a part of Iver.
For more information, please contact:
Johan Christenson
Founder of City Network and VP Innovation
+46 733 31 21 36
Johan.christenson@citynetwork.eu
www.citynetwork.eu