— Will develop a global platform for cross-field data utilization while protecting rights of data providers —
NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group (TOKYO:9432), announced today that beginning October 1 it will collaborate with the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA)1 in a demonstration test as the first phase of contributing to the development of a secure, global data-management platform2 that assures interoperability between data platforms built and managed in countries worldwide.
The test environment for sharing highly confidential data securely will include IDS Connectors3, the core technology of GAIA-X4, a federated data infrastructure for Europe, and NTT Com’s Things Cloud® IoT platform and Smart Data Platform (SDPF)5, the later incorporating Data Trust®6 policies. The demonstration, in addition to assessing the practicality and operability of a new structure for appropriately controlling the access rights of each data based on related laws and contracts, will shed new light on the requirements, etc. of platforms designed for international data management. The results are expected to lead to the establishment of global data management platforms that smoothly link-local data platforms in countries across the globe.
In the demonstration, a test environment will be built to test various cases of international data sharing, such as remote monitoring of machines overseas, etc., to verify the practicality and operability of data sharing. Initially, in collaboration with the NTT Software Innovation Center,7 IDS Connector and SDPF will be deployed in a test environment in Japan to test system interoperability and the management of specific data-usage rights. The test environment in Japan will then be connected to IDSA’s test environment in Germany and a separate test environment at the Swiss nonprofit Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne8 to test the system’s practicality and operability in controlling data access rights internationally via NTT Com’s networks.
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Thereafter, NTT Com will proceed with further verification and testing by applying the current test’s findings in a test operation environment (test bed), aiming to verify the interoperability of various hardware and software using the IDS Connector. The new global data management platform will be jointly developed by Japanese and overseas companies and organizations. At the same time, NTT Com will determine concrete requirements for the platform together with various organizations and companies active in Japan and overseas, including the Robot Revolution & Industrial IoT Initiative.9 Going forward, NTT Com hopes to support the formulation of basic specifications through public-private-academic collaboration. Ultimately, NTT Com aims to contribute to the realization of a smart world by developing and providing a platform for broad sharing and usage of data in wide-ranging fields worldwide.
Technologies for IoT, artificial intelligence and data utilization are increasingly being applied in diverse fields, including manufacturing, logistics, transportation, medical care, energy, cities and government. To facilitate advanced, multi purposed data use, systems are needed to ensure the safe, reliable exchange of data among industries, businesses and countries. Simultaneously, the rights of data providers and users must be protected and observed by managing when, where, who, why and under what conditions specific data can be used. Currently, legal systems and technologies are being developed worldwide to create such data infrastructure. Eventually, data exchange in international business may require compliance with data-infrastructure specifications according to the laws and regulations of relevant countries.
