Google Cloud to join Catena-X and help build a sovereign data ecosystem in the automotive industry

The automotive industry has a long history of being at the forefront of automation and digitalization in many areas, be it digital design or digital shop floor. In parallel, carmakers have grown into broad partnerships within their ecosystem, with a special focus on their suppliers in the value chain.

Digitizing and automating the way partners across the value chain work with each other and establishing a more advanced way of exchanging data based on digital sovereignty and open standards is an obvious evolution for this industry. This is the pioneering effort driven by Catena-X.

Catena-X is building a trustworthy, collaborative, open, and secure data ecosystem to enable end-to-end data chains for core automotive business processes. For the first time, the entire automotive value chain — from raw material suppliers to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end-of-life partners, like recyclers — is collaborating globally with software and solution providers to create a shared service ecosystem. 

In this unique data space, every partner has sovereign control over its data and can collaborate with respective market participants via an open and interoperable solution portfolio. The result will be more resilient and flexible value chains with better visibility on items like raw material sources and CO2 footprint, creating opportunities for partner companies to decarbonize their value chains. Based on open source, this data space will offer a unique breeding ground for open innovation and collaborative approaches for the entire industry.

Google Cloud is proud to join the Catena-X Automotive Network Association. We bring to the community our best-in-class secure and sovereign data management, data analytics and native integration of advanced AI technologies, and open source efforts. All will help Catena-X succeed in its mission, and with that help our allies in the industry in their journey to become data-driven businesses. 

“Google Cloud’s membership in Catena-X will support global adoption and will strengthen our capabilities in collaboratively building a data space based on open source,” said Oliver Ganser, Chairman of the Board of Catena-X Automotive Network.

How can Google Cloud assist? Here are a few examples:

• End-to-end automotive supply chain: Google Cloud technology helps companies improve demand and capacity management by connecting and joining data sources of private, community, and public data. This results in improved real-time insights, better results, massive efficiency improvements, anticipation and mitigation of risk, and cost reductions. This also enables businesses to digitize their supply chain and build capabilities to operate a more sustainable end-to-end supply chain. 

• Digital sovereignty: In September 2021, Google Cloud unveiled “Cloud. On Europe’s Terms,” an ambitious commitment to deliver cloud services that provide the highest levels of digital sovereignty. Data sovereignty is a key design criteria both in IDSA as well as Catena-X, which is the first real implementation of a federated and secure data space for Gaia-X. We not only offer unique capabilities for data sovereignty, but continue to advance options for increased operational and software sovereignty as well. Google Cloud brings this to market in partnership with local trusted providers including T-Systems in Germany and S3NS in France.

• Eclipse Data Space Connector (EDC): A key success factor for Catena-X to connect partners across the industry is the availability of data space connectors. Google Cloud, as a member of the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), is contributing actively to the open-source Dataspace Connector. 

• Sustainability built-in: Google Cloud is proud to offer the cleanest cloud in the industry, matching our energy consumption with 100% renewable energy (not just carbon credits, but real power) since 2017. We also help our customers by enabling them to leverage data analytics and AI technology to solve data challenges that can minimize carbon emission along their value chain; efforts which are closely aligned with the key priorities and use cases of Catena-X.

“By placing data, privacy and sovereignty at the center of its ecosystem, Catena-X helps its contributors maximize the value of their data. Data often already exists but is not always accessible and therefore can not readily be used to improve business outcomes,” said Dr. Wieland Holfelder, Vice President Engineering, Regional CTO for Google Cloud Security and Sovereignty.

Google Cloud is a trusted partner for the automotive industry to build and operate open data ecosystems in which modern data products can be shared seamlessly in a secure way across a “digital thread.” This end-to-end integration of data enables breaking down silos and delivering on the strategy of democratization of data. Catena-X extends the pool of data available to a single company through an ecosystem of its partners, producing a unique implementation of a data-driven value chain.