Today our information ends up in the cloud, that agile and scalable infrastructure that allows you to use server services, storage resources, databases, network, software, analytics, and intelligence without owning them on physical media.
The cloud game is made up of many decisive actions. There are those who distribute cloud services, such as Amazon and Microsoft, which alone are taken more than half of the market. There are those who buy and use those services increasingly massively: according to some estimates, 85% of companies worldwide already use the 'cloud' to store sensitive data.
In the middle are all the Internet users who end up providing a lot of information to those clouds, often much more than we realize. The question then becomes: who controls this data? How secure is our personal information?
What is Gaia-X
Gaia-X is the European project that should precisely address these questions. In June of this year, the ministers of economy Bruno Le Maire (France) and Peter Altmaier (Germany) have officially the project has been launched: the idea is to create a European cloud infrastructure that is somehow free from the control of the Silicon Valley giants (such as Amazon and Microsoft, but also Google and Alibaba), to collect, store, and manage user data according to European values and regulations, thus respecting transparency, security, system reliability, and privacy protection.
22 leading companies in the European project, with prominent names such as Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Bosch, Atos, and Sap, are expected to create and manage the legal entity that will implement Gaia-X.
Cloud of clouds
From a technical perspective, Gaia-X should hire the form of a "hyperscaling" infrastructure, that is, an architecture of massively scalable servers and virtual networks: whatever the project, essentially, the system must be agile enough to allow for rapid scalability and powerful enough to operate for projects on a European scale.
Gaia-X has been defined as a sort of "cloud of clouds": the infrastructure will serve to provide a single standard, shared among all partner countries, to secure European data and connect the various cloud services.
The keyword will therefore be interoperability: cloud computing service providers participating in the project will be autonomous, but they will have to comply with certain common rules and certify their services, from a technical as well as a legal standpoint, while privacy protection and cybersecurity remain central.
Gaia-X services could be operational as early as the first months of 2021.
And Italy?
The cloud of clouds is supported, in addition to the proposing countries, by the European Commission, and individual Union countries will be able to decide to contribute to the development and thus offer Gaia-X services.
According to Wired, fourteen Italian companies met with emissaries from the German Ministry of Economy, who in July initiated a "scouting" operation in our country to determine which among them might be interested in the project. Among the companies involved in the first meeting were major ITC names such as Tim, Aruba, St Microelectronics, Retelit, Sogei, Inforcert, and Pagopa, as well as Cassa depositi e Prestiti, Confindustria, and Confindustria digitale, along with large groups not directly involved in the telecommunications market such as Eni, Enel, Leonardo, Poste, Ferrovie dello Stato, and Rete ferroviaria italiana. The meeting was coordinated by the Ministry of Innovation.
Will Gaia-X (really) counter the big US players?
Despite the involvement of companies from the Belpaese and the Ministry of Innovation, however, for Key4Biz missingan Italian strategy on Gaia-X. More generally, the business-dedicated portal is critical of the entire European operation, as the "opposition" to the Silicon Valley giants would be merely superficial.
Kicked out the door, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google (in addition to the Chinese Alibaba) could re-enter through the window. As it stands, these giants could rejoin Gaia-X and still be certified by the cloud of clouds.
For Key4Biz,the risk is that in 2025, when the data economy of the Old Continent will be worth, according to estimates by the European Commission, 829 billion euros, a large part of that value will flow towards the United States and China. Data that could be linked to national security, in addition to the competitiveness of Union companies.
As mentioned, Europe does not have major companies in the global top ten for cloud computing services, and even the European leader in the sector, the German company Sap, lags behind IBM, Dell, Oracle, Salesforce, in addition to the aforementioned giants. Therefore, community operators would still be "crushed" by these heavyweights, even the larger ones like Sap. What would then happen to small and medium-sized providers?
The promoters of Gaia-X respond to the criticisms by explaining that they will not grant voting rights to tech giants in the governance, nor will they be able to participate in the discussion to define the rules and values on which the European cloud will be based.
The prediction, however, is that Silicon Valley companies could still leverage their influence through lobbying activities.
There are also technical issues: is it really possible for a European platform to quickly replace the services of market leaders? This is the doubt expressed, for example, by the president of the Monopolies Commission in Germany, Jürgen Kühling:
«There are good reasons not to store sensitive data on US servers, but I am very skeptical about the State's attempt to create a European alternative. The State here overestimates itself.».