Sitra's Webinar 25.3.2021: IHAN Testbed - Rise of the Pilots Presentation: Janne Enberg, Technology Lead, Digital Living

1. Technology of IHAN
Janne Enberg

2. Infrastructure and SaaS solutions Data standardization
Infrastructure and deployment automation
The big cloud providers tend to provide services in
two main categories - infrastructure, and SaaS
solutions.
On the infrastructure side they provide the
datacenter management and other capabilities so
you can deploy your software on their managed
servers, or use their managed storage services.
For SaaS they build on those capabilities and
provide ready-to-use services, such as logging, error
reporting, databases, analytics, and so on.
They also often have their own marketplace for
ready "recipes" to deploy common Open Source
Software on their infrastructure, and you can use
existing OSS management tools such as Terraform
to do that on any of the infrastructure providers
also other providers than just Big Cloud.
Gaia-X seems to have their main focus in reducing
dependency on the infrastructure from the big
cloud providers.
They are building tools to standardize deployment
to (primarily European) datacenters, so the
infrastructure side is similarly handled by
professionals on-site.
Additionally they're building tooling to describe
software deployments and their dependencies, so
e.g. when you deploy common Open Source
projects, the database they require is also deployed
and configured at the same time.
This is similar to many OSS Kubernetes
management tools already out there, and they build
heavily on Kubernetes and OpenStack.
Unlike the other ones, IHAN does not have an opinion
on where and how server infrastructure is managed.
IHAN is focused on data standardization and building
both fair markets for, and access to standardized
data.
IHAN is building open standards for this, and the
implementations built for that can be hosted on any
infrastructure, and deployed using any tools chosen
for the task.
IDSA is working on standardizing domain specific data
vocabularies and is currently very closed.
Big Cloud, Gaia-X, and any other infrastructure
provider can run IHAN compliant systems, and the
software can be deployed using Gaia-X's deployment
tools, using e.g. Kubernetes Helm, or manually.
Copyright © Digital Living International and Sitra IHAN | Enberg/Suomi/Frosti
Big Cloud vs Gaia-X vs IHAN

3. Comparison of capabilities and focus areas
Data
Standardization
Deployment tools
SaaS & PaaS
solutions
Infrastructure
services
Provider
+ OSS projects
= Focus area = Partial support / Some tooling or standards = No support / No opinion
Infrastructure services is mostly about installing server software on servers that are physically managed by the datacenter. SaaS & PaaS are providing more
comprehensive tools that require no manual maintenance by the users. Deployment tools are how you manage your software and install existing software, e.g. how to
install a database on the infrastructure. Data Standardization for IHAN is about how services and software communicate between each other, e.g. how weather data is
described and transferred from the data source to applications, to allow for applications to interoperate, and for various data sources to be compatible with each other,
as well as to meet process needs for end users and businesses, and IDSA adds partial support specifically for data vocabularies.
OSS tools with support for automating deployments to Big Cloud and other infrastructure: Terraform, Kubernetes Helm, Ansible, SaltStack, Vagrant, Chef, Puppet.
Big Cloud vs Gaia-X vs IHAN - capabilities
Copyright © Digital Living International and Sitra IHAN | Enberg/Suomi/Frosti

4. Subset of OpenAPI
3.0
Data Product standards
Nexus
Open Nexus standards
Rulebook
Certification
Layering in the Nexus
Layer 0: Everything is built on common standards such as OpenAPI, JSON, JWT, OpenID
Connect, etc. and can be deployed and hosted on any infrastructure, depending on the
requirements for the selected Nexus, Authorization, and Consenting providers. Such hosting
infrastructure may be e.g. Gaia-X compatible hosting, any IaaS provider, or bare metal, and so
on. These lay out the concrete foundation everything is built on.
etc.
Authentication
Consent
OpenID Connect
JWT
Layer 1: Data Product standards can be built by anyone for generic use or for their Nexus
specifically, are publicly available and can be implemented by APIs directly without any
Nexus, so when building a new system you don't always have to reinvent the wheel and
come up with a unique new API design. Nexus standards are also openly available for
anyone to implement a Nexus with, and we will happily work with open source projects on
implementations.
Layer 2: Nexus implementations can be written as SaaS, open source, or any other model
based on the open nexus standards. Minimum feature set is limited, and e.g. consents and
authentication are pluggable. Deployment requirements are implementation specific and
can e.g. be compatible with Gaia-X.
Layer 3: Each Nexus can set their own rules via a Rulebook that every member will have to
agree to when they operate on the Nexus. These Rulebooks can vary differently depending
on the specific organizations and use-cases, for example with health data they may be very
strict, and with weather data they may be much more relaxed. Some small Nexuses might
not need one at all.
Layer 4: When a Nexus wants to be a reliable marketplace, they may require, or offer an
optional Certification or Verification process for both the identity of the Data Vendor -
ensuring you know who you are dealing with - and the quality and reliability of the Data
Source - ensuring you can build serious business on it and trust that the data is good and
available when you need it.
Hosting, deployment
tools
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5. Nexus-as-a-Service
JSON
Custom
Data Standards
Packing list
Invoice Shipping data
Cargo receipt Insurance policy
SAP
Productizer
Force
Productizer
Custom
productizer
Product Gateway
Other data
integrations
Any protocol
Applications follow strict Data
Product standards when requesting
data from the Nexus
Data Productization layers receive
standardized requests,
communicate with backend
systems, and return standardized
responses back through the Nexus
Nexus ensures all communication
happens using the standards, and
provides tools to manage and find
Data Sources for developers on
both sides
Future protocols
Pub/Sub
Batch
Streams
"Opened" via PGW, then
out-of-band
SOAP + WSDL
Example Data Standards
https://github.com/digitalliving/standards/tree/master/draft/DataProducts
Example Productizer
https://github.com/digitalliving/ihan-productizer-example
Auth & Consent
The agreed OIDC and consent
tokens are delivered from
applications through the nexus
to data sources where
necessary for access control,
logging, etc.
Request
Response
Data Product requests define which Data
Product they want, any parameters for it, and
carry authentication, and consent tokens
Data Product responses contain a standards-
compliant Data Product response for the request,
and digital signatures* to prove authenticity
* Not yet
New Data Sources may be built
specifically with productization
capabilities in mind, while existing
systems do not need to be changed
and a Productizer layer may be built
separately for compatibility.
2.
3.
4.
Data Standards define the exact
protocol and payload of request
and response for all Data Products
using OpenAPI 3.0 specifications
1.
Copyright © Digital Living International | Enberg/Suomi/Frosti
IHAN
Blueprint
Nexuses are the first
implementation of the
IHAN Blueprint work

6. IHAN Testbed for March 2021
Closed alpha - management of connected data
sources and applications is done manually for
early pilot partners.
Applications
Data Sources
Product Gateway
Data Standards
Mai
ntai
ns
data
sou
rce
Uses Standards
B
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ild
s
ap
p
lic
at
io
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s
Use applications Ask for data from selected provider Verify + fetch data from origin
Testbed
Uses Standards
Next IHAN Testbed capabilities
Additional capabilities we expect to have in the first public
release are mostly around self-service tools to integrate your
applications and data sources, marked with dashed lines.
Additionally direct authentication integration will be replaced
with a login portal.
API Docs Developer Portal
Register Data Source
Explore options
Login portal
Find registered Data Sources
End users
Application developer Data source developer
Authentication & Authorization
+ others
Log in to application
Authorize access to data
Copyright © Digital Living International and Sitra IHAN | Enberg/Suomi/Frosti
Authorize access to data (token)
Log in to application

8. Thank you!
Find out more:
ihan.fi
digitalliving.fi
contact@digitalliving.fi
If you want to get help setting up your own
nexus project - don't hesitate to contact us!