Today marks a huge milestone in Inrupt’s journey to deliver on my vision for a vibrant web of shared benefit and opportunity. I’m thrilled that the first enterprise-ready version of a Solid Server, Inrupt’s ESS, is now available for businesses and organizations. It’s the fruit of two years of work by our outstanding team. These technologies will fundamentally change how organizations connect people with their data and create value together. It’s going to drive groundbreaking new opportunities that not only restore trust in data but also enhance our lives.
We’ve reached this milestone alongside a trusted cohort of early adopters including the BBC, NatWest Bank, the UK’s National Health Service, and the Flanders Government. They’re each proving what’s possible for their users by changing the way they think about, share, and use data. You can read more about these important pilots in this blog post from Inrupt CEO, John Bruce.
The web was always meant to be a platform for creativity, collaboration, and free invention – but that’s not what we are seeing today. Today, business transformation is hampered by different parts of one’s life being managed by different silos, each of which looks after one vertical slice of life, but where the users and teams can’t get the insight from connecting that data. Meanwhile, that data is exploited by the silo in question, leading to increasing, very reasonable, public skepticism about how personal data is being misused. That in turn has led to increasingly complex data regulations.
There had to be a better way. The Solid architecture provides that better way.
I founded Inrupt to trigger an inevitable shift in how the web operates, to mobilize resources and set a long-term direction in motion. Today that shift takes a significant step.
The technologies we’re releasing today are a component of a much-needed course correction for the web. It’s exciting to see organizations using Solid to improve the lives of everyday people – through better healthcare, more efficient government services and much more.
These first major deployments of the technology will kick off the network effect necessary to ensure the benefits of Solid will be appreciated on a massive scale. Once users have a Solid Pod, the data there can be extended, linked, and repurposed in valuable new ways. And Solid’s growing community of developers can be rest assured that their apps will benefit from the widespread adoption of reliable Solid Pods, already populated with valuable data that users are empowered to share.
Ultimately, this new foundation of trust and cooperation will lead to entirely new business models that actually benefit users as well.
Starting today, more organizations worldwide can take the first step towards building a trusted web where innovation flourishes, and everyone – businesses, developers, and web users – share the benefits. We hope you’ll join us on this exciting journey.
