Europe has been late to almost all the technological revolutions of recent decades. It arrived late to the cloud, it is overlooking many of the possibilities offered by the cloud. artificial intelligence and if you do not accelerate the pace of investment, you may also miss the train of quantum computing.
It has not been late of course in its ability to regulate and laws such as the GDPR, the DMA (Digital Markets Act) or the most recent AI Law, serve as a framework of reference for many other countries. Now, in a world in which Donald Trump’s victory threatens a large-scale trade war and in which terms such as globalization are beginning to give way to others such as nationalism, the old continent has to consider that foreign technological dependence can become a slab for your own competitiveness.
Some steps have been taken from the European institutions. Initiatives such as this single European digital market or the development of a common cloud interface under the Gaia-X umbrella are certainly welcome, although at the moment they are insufficient. Now, the European Commission wants to make Gaia-X precisely its spearhead to build a global consensus that regulates data exchange not only within national or global markets, but also in global cross-border data flows.
From the centralized model to federated data
To maintain data sovereignty, reinforce its cloud presence and end dependence on large American technology multinationals, while frustrating Chinese technological ambitions for the old continent, Europe proposes Gaia-X as a logical development, the new data spaces.
If all goes well (and this is a big if), these new spaces should be the foundation on which the new European cloud industry is built and by extension, the platform for the development of its own AI. The ultimate goal, which at the moment seems almost chimerical, is for an increasingly divided EU to achieve its own digital sovereignty.
Unlike the current model, under which companies depend on one or several centralized providers, the data spaces proposed by the European Commission are committed to a federated model. Under this paradigm, Data Spaces seek to facilitate the secure, sovereign and efficient exchange of data between organizations, companies and sectors and are designed to allow interoperability by relying on common standards and under European legislation.
In this way, the data never leaves the owner’s infrastructure, guaranteeing data sovereignty, while remaining accessible to third parties through the signing of clear agreements.
Unlike the model represented by companies such as AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, that is, individual platforms that compete with each other, data spaces are committed to building collaborative ecosystems that unite multiple actors, with an emphasis on common objectives and the creation of collective value.
Spain promotes its own data spaces
Paradoxically, it is precisely the current international context that has served as an impetus for these new spaces. And a sense of urgency runs through the main economies of the eurozone in this regard.
In the case of Spain, last November the Data Spaces Promotion Planan ambitious program endowed with 500 million euros until 2026 and which aims to accelerate the creation of sectoral data spaces.
Among the first projects, the clinical data sharing between hospitals for more effective diagnosis and the use of data in urban transportation to improve mobility. The new Plan is structured in six axes of action including key advocates, technology companies and enablers, as well as public data initiatives and outreach campaigns.
However, as more and more community voices highlight, these spaces will not be competitive if they are not capable of jumping the borders of the EU states to achieve transnational development. Only in this way, there is a possibility of being able to compete against hyper-scalar companies whose business model cannot be replicated… for two fundamental reasons: it is too complex and there are no financial resources for it.
Or as Ulrich Ahle, CEO of Gaia-X, explains: “As Europeans, we lost the battle in B2C against hyperscalars, but we are convinced that in the B2B space we have a good opportunity to play a real role in the game.” global digitalisation, based on European values and created here, in an EU ecosystem»
