Breaking down data-sharing barriers
The need to upgrade manufacturing is one of the major challenges in industry today. It is of tremendous relevance especially to Shanghai, being known for not just its international character and economic vibrancy but also great manufacturing strength. The Shanghai government has made clear its pursuit of “high-end”, value-added manufacturing in Shanghai. For such smart manufacturing solutions, the use of industrial data is key. Yet today, industrial data are scarcely shared and largely undervalued due to various barriers, in particular data security and sovereignty issues.
Data owners are easily stuck in a quandary, as the higher the value of their data, the greater the need for protective measures that conflict with the data-sharing imperatives in the age of big data. For data-sharing industrial players, big and small, their interests are insufficiently protected and their benefits rarely guaranteed. The uncertainty over data-sharing attempts leaves huge potential of data — from enhancing efficiency to creating novel and game-changing business models — untapped.
Shanghai is not alone in facing these problems. To upgrade its “gold-mining” efforts in the data world, Shanghai would too need an inclusive, secure data exchange mechanism that is widely recognized and jointly endorsed. The Industrial Data Space (IDS), a virtual construct for secure data sharing based on standardized communication interfaces, could be a good example that fits the bill.
With the support of industrial partners and government agencies in Germany and beyond, the IDS has data sovereignty at its core. It enables participants to leverage the potential of their data within a secure and trusted business ecosystem, by enabling them to decide who has the right to access these data and for what purpose. With over 25 use cases in operation, from smart logistics management to 3D printing, the initiative has great potential to provide the ideal data security framework to international industrial players.
Shanghai has made clear its desire for “differentiated development” in the Yangtze River Delta region and a smart manufacturing leader in the area. That is where industrial data could make a difference. Its many advantages — the continuous rise of strategic emerging industry, strong attractiveness to international talents, local industrial leaders that can take the lead in promoting the IDS approach at functional levels