Solving inter-organizational data sharing challenges with Gaia-X

Abstract

While data collection has become more common, organizations and individuals have identified possibilities of value derived from collected data. To get maximum value from data, it must be shared with others. However, there are multiple unsolved challenges especially in data sharing between organizations in multi-actor environments. In this thesis, these challenges are identified based on systematic literature research. Furthermore, Gaia-X data infrastructure is considered as a solution to the challenges. The main purpose of the thesis is to study, how Gaia-X solves existing inter-organizational data sharing challenges in multi-actor environments.

Firstly, the results of the literature review show there are several types of data sharing challenges that can be divided into three main categories. The business-related challenges are the most critical when organizations consider joining a data sharing ecosystem and its benefits to their organization. However, most of the identified challenges are included in the data governance category. The last category contains interoperability challenges which play an important role in enabling efficient data sharing between organizations.

Secondly, the analysis of how Gaia-X data infrastructure addresses the challenges shows that it focuses on improving the availability of data and not so much on the actual data exchange process. Furthermore, the distributed nature of Gaia-X architecture leaves data owners in charge of many factors affecting the security of data sharing and the quality of the data. As the biggest surprise, the architecture lacked the mechanisms for the enforcement of usage policies and contracts attached to a shared data resource.