Gaia-X & Sovereign Cloud Stack
As a day one member of the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL we actively help to improve data sovereignty in Europe. Our solution OSISM is an integral part of the Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS) project funded by the Federal Agency For Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND) and the Federal ministry for economy and energy (BMWi).
Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS) is cloud technology built entirely with Open Source Software – as an alternative to propietary cloud technology. Only Open Source guarantees interoperability, transparency and independence from legal claims of third parties and thus from political interference.
By using the modular SCS software stack, cloud providers can offer Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Container-as-a-Service without depending on other vendors.
SCS is using and standardizing existing and proven Open Source components such as e.g. Kubernetes and does extend them where required. Federated cloud services are enabled this way, and users can leverage distributed cloud services from several SCS operators. European companies thus have options all the way from running it themselves or using one or several service providers and thus have 100% freedom of choice avoiding lock-in effects and dependencies from providers from foreign jurisdictions.
By sharing and documenting best practices for operating such cloud stacks, the difficulty to provide high quality cloud services internally or publicly is vastly reduced.
The target of SCS and the supporting companies: Anyone can benefit from the SCS software stack by using it – and by contributing to the Open Source code, one will increase the value of Gaia-X.
Source: SCS project website
For German-speaking readers, iX 2020/12 contains an article with the title Wolken-Verbund written by Kurt Garloff. This article presents in detail the vision behind the Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS) and the current state of technical implementation based on OSISM.
In the document Digitale Souveränität – Status quo und Handlungsfelder published on 03/25/2021 by the Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften, the Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS) is listed as a key building block in Gaia-X.
Contact us for more information about Sovereign Cloud Stack and Gaia-X.