Overview
Smart Interoperability Architecture (SINA) forms a trustworthy data space that provides all technical and physical components while also designing rules (code of conduct) to regulate the access, processing, and further use of data. SINA hence radically disrupts data sharing in the building industry eco-system and pushes forward digitalization and automation. SINA substitutes the conventional, highly inefficient data-sharing infrastructure. SINA envisages a significant reduction of costs, thereby acting as a stepping stone for many business cases.
Technically, SINA creates a digital infrastructure that relies on a cloud gateway installed in the cloud systems of each stakeholder. The cloud gateway represents the bridge for communication between several internal or also external entities (including the stakeholders). SINA uses the fact that more and more products are internet ready. The companies/institutions transfer and analyse the data in their cloud and remotely access their products (e.g., updates, maintenance). E.g., a service provider for elderly care and assisted living is not anymore required to deploy a proprietary infrastructure for data generation and data transfer but uses the existing data in the cloud systems of the utilities, heating OEMs, white goods OEMs, and many more.
SINA relies on a single infrastructure for all business cases. There is no additional hardware that needs to be operated and the interfaces are defined once and for all by SINA and not by every device. SINA is based on a cloud gateway design and forms a distributed, decentralized system. Data aggregation takes place in the cloud and not at the local level. SINA allows for a single point of truth and a single point of data storage logic. This means that data is stored in one cloud system (single source of truth). In a data as a service application, other cloud systems are fed the data via the cloud gateway.
Besides the technical analysis, SINA will also analyze and provide a governance structure and code
of conduct based on the requirements defined by the Swiss Federal Council on data spaces2. The
core principles including transparency, control, fairness, accountability, and efficiency will be at the
center of the governance. The trustworthiness of SINA will be based on the fact that the members
of the data space make their data available at their own will and with the necessary control.
SINA is in need of a non-profit organization with a sustainable business model in order to take care
of the life cycle management, the development operations, the enforcement, and further development
of the code of conduct, security management, customer support & ticketing, and global promotion.
Thus, it acts like a small/light data hub for the building industry.
