July 16, 2020

The ADVANEO Data Marketplace Guarantees Data Sovereignty According to the IDS Standard

Digital marketplaces connect infrastructures, data and people. they create a basis for competitive solutions and business models. And they must meet the highest security standards. IDSA member ADVANEO shows how: After three years of extensive testing, the Düsseldorf based IT company officially presented the “ADVANEO Data Marketplace 1.0” – the first online platform ever to be based on the IDS standard.
Christian Veit

The ADVANEO Data Marketplace 1.0 facilitates secure and trustworthy exchange of data on a global level. Besides offering a platform for buying and selling data, the new marketplace accommodates almost 2 million sets of open data that are continuously updated and available for free.

Key to the ADVANEO Data Marketplace is the principle of data sovereignty (“Privacy Preserving”) is guaranteed for all of its users. To control the exchange of data and prevent unauthorized data use, the ADVANEO marketplace offers mechanisms to manage individual access to selected data securely and autonomously. In a business world in which data traffic is becoming increasingly important, cross-company, cross-national digital collaboration demands secure electronic platforms ensuring each data owner/provider stays in control over what happens to their data – and this is basically what data sovereignty is about.

How important security and trustworthiness are when it comes to exchanging sensitive data can be viewed these days, when we look at the (international) collaboration in the development and testing of a vaccine against COVID-19. Research institutions collaborating with each other can use the ADVANEO Data Marketplace to establish protected data spaces for common use of research data or to exchange data for the purpose of enriching own data inventories. ADVANEO thereby offers a solution that is highly efficient and secure at the same time.

IDS Connector facilitates secure exchange of data

The ADVANEO Data Marketplace is the first-ever online platform to be based on the IDS reference architecture ensuring data sovereignty for every participant involved in a data exchange transaction. Data sovereignty basically means two things here:

  1. ADVANEO does not require data to be exchanged to be stored on the platform itself; instead, the data always physically remains with the IT infrastructure of the respective owner/provider. The only data that can be accessed and viewed on the platform itself is metadata providing information on the data offered or requested for being exchanged.
  2. To each set of data to be exchanged, a data usage policy can be attached, specifying what the data user/consumer may do with the data, and what not. The transfer of the data does not take place until a contractual agreement has been reached by the parties involved. The technical component responsible for secure, encrypted exchange of data is the IDS Connector each participant needs to implement.
Figure: Data exchange on the ADVANEO Data marketplace

Fast access to and easy use of open data

The ADVANEO Data Marketplace is open to all common data formats. For being quickly retrievable, data can be categorized (IoT data, production data, environmental data etc.). This means that the ADVANEO Data Marketplace is a cross-domain platform, on which users have access to a pool of almost 2 million sets of open data from nearly one-thousand sources worldwide (among them e.g. www.europeandataportal.eu or www.data.gov). This allows users to enrich their own data inventories easily and cost-efficiently. Furthermore, data can be analyzed and visualized directly over the platform using a function named „Data Science Workbench“.

Sustainable, decentral approach saves resources

The ADVANEO Data Marketplace is based on a decentral approach. Large server farms are not required, as data to be exchanged always physically remains with the IT infrastructure of the data user/provider. This makes ADVANEO a sustainable solution that saves resources. Furthermore, ADVANEO supports the proliferation of renewable energy concepts, as it collaborates with a data center using only green power for operation of all necessary applications.

The development of new, data-driven applications is facilitated by an adaptable infrastructure, multiple interfaces, and various tools (such as “datathons”, a data related form of hackathons, which are conducted primarily in virtual environments).

IDS Launching Coalition

Many IDSA members are working on IDS-based products and solutions. The IDS Launching Coalitionintensified its engagement to have their use cases implemented and certified until November 2020. If you want to learn more about it, look out for #IDSgoLive on Twitter and LinkedIn and of course the IDSA Blog. For our members we prepared a Jive space with more details and background stories.

Author: Christian Veit
Christian Veit is Senior Media Consultant at Advaneo GmbH.

Stay updated with us