Gaia-X CEO Francesco Bonfiglio: "We need to grow to 75% cloud adoption in Europe."

What are the priorities of Gaia-X in your view? 

Francesco Bonfiglio: “Gaia-X has three main objectives in the short term. First, we need to communicate clearly who we are and what we do to the outside world. We have done a lot of work in the past few months, but not everyone is aware of our attainments and ambitions.”

“We are also making those ambitions concrete. We have worked hard on our architecture and developed a roadmap with three concrete goals by the end of 2021: an identity document for our services, a compliance mechanism to verify all services, and a registry to store all that information securely. Together, these components make up our governance and control layer, which enables us to test each service against our principles and to verify or otherwise.” 

“Finally, we also want to deliver tangible results. The first services will be available by the end of 2021, and we are also developing our first data spaces, including Catena-X. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Soon we will also launch our labelling concept, a key document that will shape the new generation of certification. We have compared our concept to a dozen other success projects around the world, and the consensus is that our framework is unique.” 

How will Gaia-X continue to grow in the coming years? 

Francesco: “We have drawn up a five-year plan to map out our growth. 2021 was the set-up year, in which we developed our foundations: the architecture, the federated cloud concept and some data spaces. In 2022 we want to start more data spaces and expand our services; and 2023 is the year of the turnaround, when the market will come knocking at our door. 2024 is the expansion year in which we will continue our growth, so that by 2025 we will ultimately cover about 15% of the global and at least 40% to 50% of the European data economy. We are on the right track, but our success obviously depends on the contribution of our members.”

How do your members contribute to the success of Gaia-X exactly? 

Francesco: “Gaia-X is today the only project on data sovereignty that transcends national borders and sectors: banks, manufacturers, system integrators, technology providers, etc. – they all support us. We bring all our members together in hubs, a kind of regional think tanks. We aim for the most diverse mix of users, providers and academic possible. Because then the proposals meet the wishes of all parties involved immediately and are in line with the bigger idea behind Gaia-X.”

Why should companies joint Gaia-X today? 

Francesco: “Because there is simply no similar alternative, especially for small businesses. Gaia-X is a fantastic opportunity to build the future together. Individually, companies are often too small, but if we all sit around the table, we can work under equal conditions and write this great story together. If we don’t act quickly, smaller companies really do run the risk of disappearing like snow in the sun in five years.”

In what respect is Gaia-X an excellent opportunity for smaller companies? 

Francesco: “They get the chance to join hands with other companies to help build the big picture and thus to protect themselves. Gaia-X depends on projects. The more companies that join us, the better. Often small companies don’t get the chance to share their ideas, but we can help them pick up good ideas and develop them.” 

“There are also opportunities for start-ups. Gaia-X is one of the most innovative initiatives in Europe and worldwide. Start-ups today have to choose: keep their technology and run the risk of not being able to sell it within five years, or take the leap by sharing it and supporting our project. The cost and risk for small companies is really minimal, but the return and potential of Gaia-X are huge.”

How will the balance between Gaia-X and other global technology players play out? 

Francesco: “With Gaia-X we are trying to build an alternative to the European players by levelling the playing field. It is certainly not a question of us against them. We don’t want to build a wall to push the US or China out of Europe. I am convinced that we can solve legal problems like the CLOUD act quickly, but we also have to look at the real problems: if we do nothing, we will be colonized by a handful of big players in five years’ time. We want to restore the balance and ensure a fair equilibrium.” 

What is the state of the European data economy today? 

Francesco: “The European data economy is estimated to reach €950 billion in 2025. It would then account for 10% of the European GDP. But the other 90% is completely driven by data. Self-driving cars, electric cars, smart appliances, etc. – all products and services today have two components: a classic component, driven by the traditional economy, and an intangible data-drive component.”

“In my opinion, the added value that comes directly or indirectly from data will account for 20%-30% of the total economy in five years’ time. Add that to the 10% and we are approaching half of the entire GDP. Data and the control thereof will only grow in importance in the future.” 

What role does Gaia-X play in the development of the European data economy? 

Francesco: “Three quarters of all European data and applications are not in the cloud today. According to the European data strategy, we should reach 75% cloud adoption in ten years’ time. If we do not grow to 50% or even 70%, we cannot talk about a European data economy. To increase the adoption rate, we need reliable technology, but everyone claims to be reliable today. Gaia-X is building an objective control layer to check and verify this reliability. We are sparing no effort to make the European data economy succeed, and in the meantime we can only hope that we will reach those percentages one day.”