Today, at the Data Spaces Symposium, a collaborative group of European cloud providers, managed service providers (MSPs), and industry data spaces, collectively known as the Data Space Adoption Forum (DSAF), introduced a strategic plan to facilitate the integration of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into trusted data spaces. The initiative aims to onboard 10,000 SMEs into various data spaces within 18 months, supporting innovation, competitiveness, and regulatory compliance in Europe and globally.
Trusted industry data spaces are increasingly important across complex global supply chains, driven by the need for visibility, efficiency, innovation, and sustainability. SMEs, which make up the majority of suppliers in industries such as automotive and pharmaceuticals, face challenges in joining these data spaces due to integration costs and complex processes. For example, the automotive sector includes over 800,000 suppliers, most of which have fewer than 250 employees, illustrating the scale of the SME engagement challenge.
The DSAF addresses these barriers through an open-source onboarding tool designed to simplify and reduce the cost of participation for smaller firms. Integrating the Eclipse Dataspace Components with the OPC UA architecture adds functionality for manufacturing companies, helping to remove technical and financial obstacles.
To scale SME participation, DSAF members have co-developed open-source software projects using a multi-tenant architecture with resource management and supplier onboarding technologies.
The Data Space Adoption Forum has established a three-part approach called Data Space Onboarding-as-a-Service:
- Technical Innovation: Launch of EDC-V, a specialised variant of the Eclipse Foundation’s Dataspace Component, designed for cloud service providers.
- Distribution: Leveraging cloud service providers as a scalable channel, along with federated cloud infrastructures, to extend the reach of these tools across industries and regions.
- Commitment: Collaboration across the data space ecosystem to provide end-to-end support and secure data sharing.
The initiative aims to reduce costs and technical barriers for SMEs, provide MSPs with new revenue opportunities through enhanced services, and offer cloud providers additional data space-related service potential.
A pilot demonstration with Catena-X in the automotive sector has tested the approach, which can be applied across industries and multiple data spaces. SMEs, managed service providers, cloud providers, and system integrators are encouraged to engage with the DSAF to explore adoption opportunities.
Marco Mangiulli, Chief Innovation Officer of Aruba, stated that the initiative is intended to make data-sharing frameworks accessible, highlighting Aruba’s role as a European cloud service provider offering infrastructure and expertise to support the data space ecosystem.
