Breakthrough for data rooms: CANCOM and HPE lower barriers to entry for sovereign shared data value creation
Vienna, April 30, 2025 - For years, data rooms have been considered key to the growth of a sovereign European data economy - but their full potential often remains untapped because they present companies and public authorities with technological and operational challenges. CANCOM Austria now offers a solution that removes these hurdles. Without high integration costs or complex in-house developments, it enables secure and efficient collaboration across company and industry boundaries. The open architecture also enables the integration of data spaces based on other standards, such as Gaia-X or the International Data Spaces Association.
The new solution was developed by CANCOM Austria in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). It makes the provision of data spaces as easy as using a modern cloud platform. CANCOM Austria provides an integrated open source technology stack as a managed service that includes all the functions a company or public authority needs to participate in data rooms. The stack is operated in the data centers of the respective data room participants, as private instances in one of the CANCOM data centers or in the cloud.
Another advantage: unlike many previous approaches, the solution does not require any data transfer between the participants. Thanks to the underlying service mesh architecture, communication takes place directly between the systems involved - secured by zero-trust procedures for mutual authentication and continuous attestation of identities. Alternatively, controlled data transfer is also possible, with data usage being automatically monitored and logged across the entire data room.
"Data rooms can become the pillar for the European data economy and digital sovereignty - but until now the barriers to entry have been very high," explains Dietmar Wiesinger, CSO of CANCOM Austria. "We are working with HPE to lower these barriers and enable trustworthy and secure cross-company digital collaboration in shared data spaces - with full control over their own data. In this way, we help companies to strategically exploit this advantage and increase their competitiveness in the long term."
The technology stack is provided fully pre-integrated by CANCOM Austria. The technology stack is based on an HPE reference architecture for federated ecosystems and uses only cloud-native open source technologies and open standards - all with a "Graduated" maturity level from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). The setup, maintenance and expansion of data room functions is therefore highly standardized and automated. For example, only a few simple steps are required to connect new data room participants or create data usage rules.
"In contrast to other data room approaches, we only use open source frameworks from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation for this solution," says Florian Bühr, Solution Architect, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. "We have linked these frameworks in such a way that developers have all the necessary functions for data federation and security ready to use - so they can concentrate on the specialist applications and value creation."
The new solution is available immediately from CANCOM Austria. It opens up numerous application possibilities, including
- Secure access to multi-domain data for the training of AI agents
- Transparency and traceability in supply chains for regulatory compliance
- Monetization of data through standardized and controlled access mechanisms
The configuration, monitoring and control of the data rooms is completely decentralized and under the sole control of the respective participants. Companies can define individual data usage guidelines and adapt these flexibly to their business requirements. To make the most of the potential of modern data ecosystems and to share data with partners in a secure, controlled and self-determined manner, CANCOM Austria offers solutions that redesign collaboration in companies, optimize processes and implement innovative use cases. The experts at CANCOM Austria support their customers from the initial idea through to operational implementation. CANCOM services include, for example, discovery workshops, onboarding, connection of data sources to the data room and finally the operation of the technology stack as a managed service.
Further information: https://www.cancom.at/data-spaces#use-cases
About CANCOM Austria: As a leading digital business provider, CANCOM accompanies companies, organizations and the public sector into the digital future. The range of services and solutions includes classic system house IT solutions as well as data-based digital solutions, managed services and cloud services. We accompany the digital evolution of our customers with passion and technology and support them in reducing the complexity of their IT and developing new business models. We offer a holistic portfolio for all IT and business requirements. The CANCOM Group's offering includes innovative solutions in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Security & Network, Datacenter & Cloud, IoT Solutions and Modern Workplace and includes services for the entire IT lifecycle - from the provision of IT infrastructures, planning and integration, to support, managed services and XaaS. Customers benefit from the extensive expertise with which their diverse requirements are translated into concrete industry-specific IT solutions to significantly promote their business success. The more than 5,600 employees of the internationally active CANCOM Group with around 80 locations in the DACH region, Belgium, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic as well as an efficient partner network guarantee market presence and customer proximity. The CANCOM Group is managed by Rüdiger Rath (CEO) and Thomas Stark (CFO). The company is headquartered in Munich. CANCOM generated annual sales of around 1.7 billion euros in 2024. The Group parent company CANCOM SE is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the TecDAX and SDAX (ISIN DE0005419105).
About Hewlett Packard Enterprise: He wlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), the world's leading technology company, develops intelligent solutions that enable customers to capture, analyze and use their data to create value. With innovations for networks, hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, the company helps customers develop new business models, transform processes and increase their productivity. Further information: www.hpe.com/de