New version of X-Road published by the ​Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has for the first time published a new version of X-Road data exchange layer. Estonia and Finland developed X-Road together from 2015 until June 2018 when the development was handed over to NIIS.

Next level in the Estonian-Finnish cross-border collaboration

"Releasing this X-Road core version is a big step for NIIS as it’s the first version released by the institute. It is also an important milestone to our members, Estonia and Finland, because until now they have published their own releases using a shared code base. Now NIIS is taking the collaboration to the next level by moving to common releases", says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of NIIS.

New version provides improvements and bug fixes

X-Road core version 6.19.0 was published on 28th September 2018 and it provides multiple minor improvements and bug fixes. Improvements include enhancement regarding performance, certificates and recovery from service breaks. In addition, documentation for developers has been improved to provide more detailed instructions on X-Road development.

X-Road core is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge for any individual or organization.

Iceland becomes a partner of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Iceland has signed a partnership agreement with the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS). Iceland is the first partner of NIIS and the parties aim to deepen the cooperation towards a membership of Iceland in the future.

Iceland is currently implementing X-Road data exchange layer which is nowadays developed by NIIS. The X-Road data exchange layer enables secure data exchange within a country, but also as an X-Road federation between the countries which have implemented their own X-Road environments.

"We are happy to get Iceland join the Nordic X-Road family and NIIS, as a partner country first and hopefully as a full member in the future. We look forward to cooperate also with other Nordic and EU countries. It is beneficial for the countries to develop a common platform for data exchange, to enable data exchange between the countries, and finally to provide private companies with new business opportunities through services connected via the platform", explains Ville Sirviö, the CEO of NIIS.

"In Iceland, there is a huge focus on increasing and improving online public service. Iceland is prepared to meet those challenges and exploiting the opportunities inherent in ever-increasing technological change. Implementation of X-Road is a major milestone in our roadmap and it will play key role in our IT infrastructure", says Einar Birkir Einarsson, Head of Division from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Iceland.

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is already used nationwide in the Estonian X-tee and in the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service.

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has published its first software releases

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has published its first software release. NIIS published version 0.3.0 of XRd4J X-Road extension on 5th September 2018. REST Adapter Service version 1.0.0 will be published within few days.

REST support to X-Road

REST Adapter Service provides REST support to X-Road and it can be used for both consuming and producing REST services via X-Road. XRd4J is a Java library for building X-Road compatible clients and services. 

REST Adapter Service and XRd4J are released under the MIT open source license and are available free of charge for any individual or organization. 

X-Road Community contributing to the code base

"REST Adapter Service and XRd4J have originally been developed by the X-Road Community, and they were handed over to NIIS earlier this year. We think that in addition to developing the X-Road core, it's important to provide tools that facilitate connecting new services to X-Road. We're happy to continue the development of these community initiated extensions and provide the results back to the community", says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of NIIS.

REST Adapter Service

https://github.com/nordic-institute/REST-Adapter-service

XRd4J

https://github.com/nordic-institute/xrd4j

NIIS Software Repository

https://artifactory.niis.org/

Estonia and Finland started common development of X-Road software core

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has started its first agile development sprint of X-Road software core. The development by NIIS was kicked off on 7th August when the first sprint officially started.

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian X-tee and in the Finnish Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service. X-Road is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge for any individual or organization.

“Estonia and Finland have developed X-Road core together since 2015, but until now the development has been done by country specific teams using their own development tools and processes. This is the first time when Estonia and Finland develop software together under a joint organization and with a common release schedule”, says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of the NIIS.

Global X-Road technology event to take place in Tallinn, Estonia

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian X-tee and in the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service.

The X-Road Community Event is aimed for anyone interested in the X-Road – users consuming or producing services by using the X-Road, developers of the X-Road open source software or related components, operators of X-Road environments or servers, and decision-makers and e-governance experts interested in the X-Road.

The global X-Road Community has members from 11 different time zones and there are over 30 countries currently considering, studying or implementing the X-Road or related technologies.

"There has been an annual joint X-Road event organized between Estonia and Finland. Now it was time to have an international flagship event for X-Road enthusiasts around the world", says Ville Sirviö, CEO of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) that is organizer of the event.

The X-Road Community Event takes place in Swissôtel Tallinn on 12th September 2018. The organizers are expecting 200 participants from around the world to arrive.

NIIS has selected Gofore to develop X-Road technology of Estonia and Finland

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has selected Gofore Plc in public procurement as a cooperation partner to develop X-Road data exchange layer technology. This framework agreement is made for three years, and Gofore is the sole supplier. The estimated value of the framework agreement is 2.1 M EUR.

“In the cooperation, the core components of X-Road are developed by using agile software development methods”, says Ville Sirviö, CEO of NIIS.

X-Road is an open source data exchange layer solution that enables organizations to exchange information over the Internet. X-Road ensures confidentiality, integrity and interoperability between data exchange parties. 

X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian public administration (X-tee) and in the Finnish Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer (Suomi.fi-palveluväylä) service. Finland's and Estonia's data exchange layers were connected to one another in February 2018.

“This new contract with NIIS is strategically very important to us. We are very excited to be involved in building the digital society and developing cross-border cooperation”, says Timur Kärki, Managing Director of Gofore Plc.

Estonia and Finland explore ways to bring next digital components under joint development by the NIIS

The governments of Estonia and Finland convened together for the first time in history on 7th May 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia. The jubilee meeting reached agreement on many concrete measures by which digital connections between Estonia and Finland will be enhanced.

The governments decided to explore ways to bring next digital service infrastructure components under joint development into the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions, and to support the Institute in efforts to find new member countries.

The goverments also decided to ensure and take all the necessary actions that the ongoing data-exchange projects shall be completed in due time in 2018 and 2019, and the use-cases and roadmaps in next data exchange areas shall be identified by end of 2018.

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions is currently completing its first public procurement and starting development activities of the X-Road data exchange layer technology.

Estonia and Finland launch a public procurement of X-Road software core development

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has published its first public procurement of X-Road software core development. All forthcoming EU-wide public procurements of the NIIS shall be published in the Estonian Public Procurement Register. The estimated value of forthcoming NIIS procurements is 2,5 M EUR for the contract period of three years.

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian public administration and in the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service.

"This is probably the first time when a joint special purpose organization of two countries carries out a public procurement of agile software development. The X-Road is already published as open source software and the development conducted by the NIIS shall also continue as open source”, explains Ville Sirviö, CEO of the NIIS.

As a result of the procurements and other preparation by the NIIS, there shall be a development team consisiting of members from one or more companies in one or more countries, shared X-Road product backlog, development model and development tools.

“The operating model of the institute is quite unique and so are the procurement and development models we use. We are expecting to see the first X-Road software deliverables by NIIS during the second half of year 2018”, Ville Sirviö says.

Petteri Kivimäki appointed CTO of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Petteri Kivimäki has been appointed Chief Technology Officer of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) starting from 22nd February 2018. Before joining the NIIS, Petteri has been working as a software architect in a leading global professional services company. Petteri holds a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering from the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland.

During years 2014–2017 Petteri worked at the Population Register Centre of Finland as an information systems manager. He was the technical lead of X-Road implementation project in Finland and was coordinating the joint open source development of the X-Road solution between Finland and Estonia.