• Objective: Deployment of Gaia-X network infrastructure for critical applications
  • Consortium Leadership: DE-CIX Management GmbH

Frankfurt am Main, 02.12.2021. DE-CIX, the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges and interconnection, has received financial support for the TELLUS project as part of the funding competition “Innovative and Practical Applications and Data Spaces in the GAIA-X Digital Ecosystem (GAIA-X Funding Competition)” of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The goal of TELLUS is to provide a Gaia-X network infrastructure for critical applications through a Gaia-X compliant interconnection platform. For the first batch of approvals, which will fund a total of 11 winning consortia, the BMWi is expected to provide funding totaling approximately 122 million Euro.

Under the leadership of DE-CIX, nine additional companies – Cloud&Heat, KAEMI, Mimetik, plusserver, CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, SpaceNet, WOBCOM, TRUMPF und IONOS – are involved in the TELLUS consortium.

“Creating a secure, connected and federated data infrastructure that meets the highest standards of data sovereignty is the heart and vision of Gaia-X. All components developed in the context of TELLUS will be made available to the Gaia-X community and will allow a broad adaptation even beyond the project period”, says Dr. Christoph Dietzel, Global Head of Products & Research at DE-CIX.

“I am pleased to see that not just one, but two consortia with the involvement of companies from Hesse have been successful in the competition, and I congratulate in particular DE-CIX Management GmbH for the consortium leadership in the development of the project TELLUS. In the context of our Digital Strategy, we will develop ‘AI made in Hesse’ as a strong brand for responsible AI innovations,” said the Digital Minister of the German Federal State of Hesse, Prof. Kristina Sinemus.

TELLUS network independent of public Internet

The Gaia-X Innovation Cluster is developing a Gaia-X compliant interconnection platform and is compiling examples of critical use cases from business and industry whose requirements on the Internet infrastructure in terms of latency, bandwidth, security, resilience, growth, and monitoring go significantly beyond the current economic and technical framework. This involves connecting various cloud platforms – both to each other and to third parties – via DE-CIX and Internet service providers (ISPs) to give users choice and flexibility, and thus digital sovereignty. The goal is to use integrated software instances and homogeneous interfaces to set up and deploy a Gaia-X network infrastructure across provider boundaries that runs independently of the standard Internet and yet is supported by its infrastructure. This enables the linking of the many users and providers of federated cloud services such as AI applications, data storage and collaboration tools.

DE-CIX as a blueprint for other Internet Exchange operators

Within the European cloud infrastructure project Gaia-X, DE-CIX functions as a blueprint for other Internet Exchanges and interconnection providers on how they can provide the necessary interconnection services to realize the innovative vision of distributed data spaces. DE-CIX operates more than 30 carrier and data center-neutral Internet Exchanges worldwide, with a strong focus on Europe, and has long been a global thought leader in enterprise interconnection ecosystems. Gaia-X aims to create digital ecosystems: a secure, interconnected, and federated data infrastructure that meets the highest standards of data sovereignty is the heart and vision of the Gaia-X project.

DE-CIX is currently making, among others, the following contributions to Gaia-X:

  • Provision and integration of the DE-CIX interconnection platform
  • Attracting further European IX operators
  • Enabling secure communication within different industries: Closed User Groups (CUG) enable the exchange of data in isolated yet high-performance infrastructures

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About DE-CIX

DE-CIX (German Commercial Internet Exchange) is the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges. In total, in its 32 locations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia, DE-CIX interconnects over 2400 network operators (carriers), Internet service providers (ISPs), content providers, and enterprise networks from more than 100 countries, offering peering, cloud, and interconnection services. The combined connected customer capacity of all DE-CIX locations worldwide exceeds 85 Terabits, making it the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem in the world. DE-CIX in Frankfurt, Germany, with a data throughput of more than 10 Terabits per second (Tbps) and over 1000 connected networks, is one of the largest Internet Exchanges in the world.
Further information at www.de-cix.net

Media contact DE-CIX:
Judith Ellis, Carsten Titt – Global Public Relations
Phone: +49 (0)69-1730902-130
Email: media@de-cix.net