The Evolution of Data Spaces

The role data plays in enterprises is changing as the digital transformation in many sectors gains speed. New business opportunities through data-driven innovation emerge from data sharing in ecosystems. In ecosystems, the interest of the individual must be brought into alignment with the interest of the ecosystem. Trust between participants, data interoperability, and data sovereignty are key requirements which can be met by data spaces. Data spaces are a distributed data integration concept which is taken up by consortia aiming at supporting ecosystem. GAIA-X and IDS specify reference architectures for distributed data infrastructures and data spaces, respectively. While the benefits of data spaces for a fair data economy are recognized by business and policy makers, a deeper understanding is required about the design and evolution of data spaces. This chapter introduces fundamental concepts, identifies design tasks and options, and, thus, provides guidance for the establishment of data spaces.