Glossar
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B
Big Data
Big data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing
Big Tech
SDIA refers to Big Tech as the major foreign cloud service providers that dominate market share through economies of scale and vertical integration; namely, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Alibaba and Microsoft. It further refers to digital product & service companies which have a significant market share in their respective category, for example Tencent or Facebook.
Bundling
Practice of tying digital resources with value-added services (PaaS, SaaS), preventing separate purchasing.
C
Carbon Footprint
Someone's carbon footprint is a measurement of the amount of carbon dioxide that their activities produce
Circular Economy
The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible.
Cloud Computing
Paradigm of using commodity digital resources to perform computations - e.g. to run a software application, a function, or any form of software-driven computation.
Cloud Infrastructure
Paradigm on the separation of digital resources (computing power, networking and storage) from the physical infrastructure (servers, data center, energy) and providing those resources as a consumable commodity to software applications.
Cloud Platforms
Vertically integrated businesses spanning all digital infrastructure markets - data centers, IaaS, and PaaS.
Commodity
A commodity, also called primary product or primary good, is a good sold for production or consumption just as it was found in nature. Commodities include crude oil, coal, copper or iron ore, rough diamonds, and agricultural products such as wheat, coffee beans or cotton; they are often traded on commodity exchanges.
Credit Schemes
Free usage allowances (up to €350,000) offered by cloud platforms to startups in exchange for platform lock-in.
Critical Minerals
Essential minerals required for the production of ICT equipment.
D
Data
The means by which software applications via application programming interfaces (APIs) or user interfaces (front-ends, clients) communicate with each other, receive user inputs and store inputs and outputs.
Data Centers
Facilities that combine ICT equipment with electrical & mechanical infrastructure (cooling, power distribution) to transform inputs (energy, water, land, minerals) into digital resources.
De Minimis Rules
EU state aid rules allowing up to €300,000 in support over 3 years without notification.
Digital Divide
The gap between individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.
Digital Economy
Transformation brought about by the widespread adoption of digital technologies (robotics, machine learning, sensors, virtual reality and so on).
Digital Ecosystem
Companies and administrations with digitalization needs. The necessary knowledge and competencies are bundled and made accessible through regional IT service providers.
Digital Infrastructure
The total physical and software-based infrastructure necessary to deliver digital goods, products & services.
Digital Product
What a company or a consumer might buy. It is always made up of software or a combination of software and hardware and, therefore, deals with data,
Digital Resources
The low-level resources required for digital products & services to operate. They can be seen as the fuel that power digital software application.
Digital Solutions Provider
Combines and utilizes digital services to create tailored digital solutions for specific markets or challenges, using their expertise to generate additional value in the digital ecosystem.
E
Egress Fees
High charges for transferring data out of a cloud platform, creating switching barriers.
Energy Efficiency Directive
EU regulation requiring reporting on data center facility and IT equipment efficiency.
Energy Market Liberalization
The liberalization of energy markets, with specific reference to electricity generation markets, brings greater competition into electricity and gas markets in the interest of creating more competitive markets and reductions in price by privatisation.
Energy Transition
The shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
Enterprise/Public Sector
Organizations maintaining hybrid models with own infrastructure while using cloud platforms for the agile production of new digital services.
Environmental Footprint
The effect that a person, company, activity, etc. has on the environment.
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
An environmental product declaration is an externally verified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that has to be done using a set of pre-defined rules either for an entire Product Category (Product Category Rules, PCR) or specific to a type of product (PSR, Product-specific rules).
EuroHPC
European super computing network for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI model training.
European Cloud Platforms
Examples include Scaleway (FR), OVHcloud (FR), and STACKIT (DE), offering competitive pricing but limited platform services.
E-waste
Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).
F
Fiber Network
The SDIA often refers to fiber networks as connectivity, the prerequisite of a digital economy. Without fiber networks, there is no digital economy (they are the roads) and we therefore see them as a public good. Through ownership of fiber networks a company could essentially control the internet or create their own, with severe anti-competitive implications.
Free Training/Certification
Programs offered by large cloud platforms to create knowledge dependency on their specific platform services.
G
Green Deal
EU's plan for sustainable growth, aiming for climate neutrality and decoupling economic growth from resource use.
Green IT
Energy-efficient hardware (greening of IT) [and] smart software solutions that contribute to the sustainable development goals (greening by IT).
Green Software
Greening in software aims to reduce the environmental impact caused by the software itself. [...] Green specifications provide a way to indicate a service’s carbon footprint and eventually specify operational constraints to allow more flexibility during service provisioning.
I
ICT Equipment
Information and Communication Technology hardware including servers, storage systems, and networking devices.
Information Technology (IT)
The technology involving the development, maintenance, and use of computer systems, software, and networks for the processing and distribution of data.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
A service which virtualizes and enables flexible and scalable access to digital resources.
Interoperability Standards
Technical requirements, ensuring infrastructure and platform services can work across different platforms.
IT Consultancies and Ser v i ce Providers ( ITS Ps )
Service providers focused on cost-effectiveness and reusability, assembling digital services from pre-made components primarily for business and public sector organizations.
IT Service Providers (ITSPs)
Companies that deliver full IT solutions (assembled from multiple digital and platform services) to business customers, often acting as intermediaries between cloud platforms and end customers.
L
Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle Assessments are adopted broadly in the sustainability realm. For many sectors, ranging from building to farming to the energy sector, this is already applied. However, it has not been applied yet for the digital infrastructure industry. Therefore, efforts to make the industry more sustainable are difficult: we don’t have the data to improve.
Lock-in
The situation where customers become dependent on a single cloud platform due to high switching costs.
M
P
Planetary Boundaries
Nine critical global processes that regulate Earth's stability and resilience, within which humanity must operate (Stockholm Resilience Center).
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
Building blocks and ready-made software components that enable faster digital service production.
Price Discovery
The process by which an exchange reveals the true market price for digital resources through open bidding and competitive offers.
R
Researchers/Developers
Individual customers requiring quick experimentation and short-term access to digital resources with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Reservation Practices
Individual customers requiring quick experimentation and short-term access to digital resources with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Resource Efficiency
The amount of digital resources that can be produced from a fixed amount of natural resources (energy, water, metals, minerals).
Revenue Sharing
Financial incentives paid to ITSPs for selling bundled cloud services.
S
Science-Based Targets
Science-based targets provide a clearly-defined pathway for companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, helping prevent the worst impacts of climate change and future-proof business growth.
Scope 1, 2 & 3 Emissions
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company’s GHG emissions into three ‘scopes’. Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of
Self - preferencing
Cloud platforms favoring their own platform and digital services over third-party alternatives.
Shared Factory Model
Shared Factory Model is an analogy describing cloud platforms as shared factories where multiple companies use the same "machinery" (infrastructure and platform services) to produce digital services.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Complete digital services built using infrastructure and platform services.
Sustainability
Sustainability is often represented diagrammatically. The figure at the top of this page suggests that there are three pillars of sustainability – economic viability, environmental protection and social equity.
Startups
New companies for whom time to market is critical and capital is limited, using cloud platforms for rapid development of their products and services.
Switching Costs
The prohibitive expenses involved in migrating from one cloud platform to another, including data transfer, service rebuilding, and architecture adjustment.
U
Unbundling
The separation of the digital resources from the services in the offering of cloud services by cloud service providers who are vertically integrated. We see unbundling as a necessary process for there to be fair and open competition in both the supply and demand sides of the digital power market.
Utilization Rate
The percentage of available capacity (space, equipment, digital resources) actually being used productively.
Verein zur Förderung digitaler Ökosysteme e.V. © 2026
Verein zur Förderung digitaler Ökosysteme e.V. © 2026
Verein zur Förderung digitaler Ökosysteme e.V. © 2026
Verein zur Förderung digitaler Ökosysteme e.V. © 2026
Verein zur Förderung digitaler Ökosysteme e.V. © 2026
Verein zur Förderung digitaler Ökosysteme e.V. © 2026