The Gaia-X Federation Services (GXFS) study ” Strategies for Building Gaia-X Ecosystems using the Gaia-X Federation Services – In dialogue with the Gaia-X Projects “, published today, explores how GXFS helps to get Gaia-X Federations up and running and what challenges users identify.
For this purpose, the study interviewed eleven projects from the Gaia-X funding competition of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. “The trend is clear: Gaia-X and GXFS are perceived as a catalyst and necessary foundation for a sustainable and innovative digitalisation for data-based business models,” emphasised Andreas Weiss, Head of Digital Business Models at eco – Association of the Internet Industry.
In dialogue with the Gaia-X projects
In order to obtain an overview of the perceived knowledge of and perceived relevance of GXFS for the projects as well as an overview of the planned implementation strategies of the projects, the consortium leads and technical leads of the eleven Gaia-X projects were first asked for initial feedback via an online survey. Subsequently, expert interviews were conducted with seven projects between June and September 2022.
Initial findings: information available, but sifting through it is labor-intensive
The study results show: GXFS is seen as a tool to advance digitisation in Germany and Europe. The level of knowledge about GXFS among the respondents is good, although there is still room for improvement. “Anyone who says there is not enough information has not yet sifted through everything that is available. The challenge is to sift through it all, prioritize it – and ultimately read it” said Gino Barnard, technical lead of the project “Possible”.
In terms of the technical implementation work, most respondents are still in the early preparation stages. However, the added values of GXFS clearly resonates with all projects, as they solve existing problems and thus contribute to the implementation of new business models and the building of new platforms.
Participation in conferences, hackathons, and deep dives recommended
To drive GXFS implementation strategies, the study recommends participating in project-internal networking events, but also to partake in GXFS conferences, Hackathons and technical deep dives workshops. Additionally, good communication around the project also matters. “GXFS needs to make its added value clear to interested users and communicate with them at eye level” says Jens Böcker of Böcker Ziemen Consulting, the commissioned authors of the study.
GXFS OSS toolbox available now
Interested parties can already find the GXFS toolbox as open source code in Gitlab and get an overview of the functionalities here. The basic services will be further developed by the Gaia-X community in the future. First demonstrations of the services have already been presented at GXFS Connect 2022.
The complete study is now available for download here. A delta study is planned for 2023.