Brussels, March 29th – The Gaia-X Board of Directors officially validated the membership of 212 new companies and research organizations wishing to join the European Data and Cloud Association, and announces a forthcoming compliance label to help users identify the services respecting Gaia-X specifications. Two strong steps to reinforce the European Data and Cloud Association.
212 New Members to reinforce Europe’s digital agenda
Of the 212 companies that applied to join GAIA-X, all were accepted by the Board of Directors after a majority vote, with legal effect of March 31st.
Around 40% of new members are Cloud and technical vendor companies, 36% user companies associations, academics or NPO and 25% start-ups. More than 92% of the new members are European companies, the other members are mainly from Asia and North America.
Gaia-X welcomes these new members. The great interest in becoming member of Gaia-X confirms that Gaia-X goals are important and that many market participants want to make sure that Gaia-X is a success.
A label to identify services compliant with Gaia-X principles
Gaia-X is setting a high ambition towards data sharing and federated cloud services. In order to distinguish services offerings fulfilling the high standards expected by Gaia-X, the Board of Director decided March 22nd upon the creation of a forthcoming Gaia-X compliance label that will be awarded only to services or products fully compliant with the Gaia-X principles.
The Gaia-X label will be awarded to solutions that will satisfy criteria defined in the several next weeks by the Board of Directors and based on the work of the Technical Committee and the Policy Rules Committee. Companies relying on a Gaia-X compliant service will be sure that the solutions comply with European law, that it offers data portability, the highest criteria of data security, a clear transparency on data usage and applicable regulation, the guaranty of reversibility and all the relevant criteria which reflect the purpose of Gaia-X.
This trust mark can be awarded to both members and non-members of the Gaia-X Association. Being a member of the Gaia-X Association will not mean that any of the services of a member company will be compliant.
In the past, several companies published misleading statements by announcing that they were already Gaia-X member or that they already provide services compliant with Gaia-X. Gaia-X therefore wants to send a strong signal that the rules afore mentioned have to be strictly respected.
Gaia-X will be able to propose in December 2021 the first Gaia-X labeled solutions that will enable to collaborate more easily. These data sharing principles are essential to develop new services, increase their performance, and maintain their competitiveness on the world stage.
Gaia-X’s mission is to lean on European policy rules for data and cloud, in accordance with European regulations and values. “We are pleased to welcome a significant number of companies which will now participate in the implementation of common standards to ensure that data is hosted, used and transferred transparently and with full confidence,” said Hubert Tardieu, Chairman of the board of the Gaia-X Association at the end of the Board of Directors meeting.
“The objective is to ensure that existing Cloud solutions, in line with a common European standard, are portable and interoperable. European companies will have at their disposal Gaia-X labeled solutions that will enable them to collaborate more easily” reinforced Francesco Bonfiglio, CEO of the Gaia-X Association.
“Having a strong trust mark for Gaia-X compliant service, open to both members and non-members of the Association, will be a strong asset for our ecosystem” said Pierre Gronlier, CTO of the Gaia-X Association
Data sharing principles are essential to develop new services, increase their performance, and maintain their competitiveness on the world stage. Gaia-X will act as an intermediary between users expectations and solution offered by providers, ensuring that expectations, developments and offers are constantly synchronized.
