Berlin, Düsseldorf The motto of the second summit for the European data project Gaia-X is to be understood as an announcement. “Here to deliver” is the promise of the congress, which will take place in Milan on Thursday and Friday. The acting Federal Minister of Economics, Peter Altmaier (CDU) and his French counterpart Bruno le Maire will also take part in the meeting.
But the pithy saying cannot hide the fact that disillusionment is slowly creeping into the mega-project. There are increasing reports of unclear goals and excessive bureaucratic structures – contrary to what was originally announced, there are no concrete examples of use.
Above all, however, the conflict is becoming more and more noticeable about how the European showcase project should deal with the American and Asian tech giants. Include or leave out? The question threatens to split Gaia-X.
The major project initiated primarily by Germany and France started with great ambitions. The aim was to create an open, transparent and secure digital ecosystem in which data and services could be shared in a trustworthy environment, it was said at the beginning of the 2019 project.
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In short: Gaia-X wanted to restore sovereignty over its own data in Europe. Because at the moment, due to the lack of alternatives, companies are forced to store their data with the large cloud providers such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft. According to a recent study by the market analyst Synergy, these three dominate around 69 percent of the European market for IT infrastructure from the cloud.
However, the goal of Gaia-X was never to compete with these “hyperscalers”. Rather, common requirements for a European data infrastructure should be defined – those who adhere to them are allowed to be part of it. The calculation: standards for data exchange only make sense if the market leaders are involved.
But this attitude is currently igniting a fundamental debate within the project. Because while the American and Asian tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Palantir, Huawei and Alibaba have been members of Gaia-X since April, some European cloud providers are dissatisfied with the integrative approach.
European cloud providers disappointed
That is why 23 of them got together in July to launch the Euclidia project. According to the founding communication, the aim should be “to provide European politics with specialist knowledge and future plans from practice”. Frank Karlitschek, founder of the cloud provider Nextcloud and member of Euclidia, makes it clear to the Handelsblatt that this is not a counter-project to Gaia-X, but also adds: “It is probably true that we are aware of the current developments at Gaia -X are rather disappointed. “
The European mega-project is currently at a “crossroads”, says Karlitschek. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, he explains and specifies who he is referring to: “The inclusion of American hyperscalers in particular has led to a defocusing.” Philipp Reisner, founder of the tech company Linbit, also spoke to Heise online about it that Gaia-X has meanwhile been “subverted too much by non-European providers”.
This “pure lesson” to bring Gaia-X to the fore exclusively through European cloud providers is opposed to the rather pragmatic position, without the hyperscalers being able to celebrate no great successes. “The goal of Gaia-X was never to create a purely European zone from which other players are excluded,” argues Gaia-X chairman Maximilian Ahrens.
In addition to the question of who is allowed to take part in Gaia-X, there are also some other construction sites. So far, for example, there has been a lack of specific applications. “We have disseminated ideas on PowerPoint slides long enough,” said Sascha Tegtmeyer, Chief Digital Officer of the Hamburg State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying of the “Tagesspiegel”.
But the start of the first so-called “federated services” under the auspices of Gaia-X will be delayed until next year, contrary to the original plan. The political regulations of Gaia-X should actually have been revised by last September – but so far there has been no progress to report.
Gaia-X is making slow progress
At the summit in Milan, the aim is to announce as much progress as possible – for example with regard to the introduction of a quality certificate that has been planned for some time. These should soon be available to providers of data infrastructure and identify quality features such as transparency and security for customers.
The participants are aware that Gaia-X is making slow progress: “Companies operate at a different speed than such an organization,” says a German IT manager who is involved in the project. Finding a consensus takes time. In addition, you don’t develop software, but agree on standards – and that is always time-consuming.
Rainer Sträter, who is responsible for the global cloud and hosting platform at the German provider Ionos, warns: “Gaia-X is a marathon, not a sprint.” It will be crucial that the market recognize the specific benefits and develop demand. At the summit, he hoped that “political representatives such as Mr. Altmaier will make a clear commitment to Gaia-X”.
More: This data project aims to change Europe