Aruba has joined the International Data Spaces Association, bringing the Italian cloud and data centre provider into a European industry effort to expand the use of shared data environments.

The membership gives Aruba a role in the association’s work on standards and adoption models for so-called data spaces, where companies exchange data under agreed rules on security, interoperability and control. Aruba is also taking part in the Data Space Adoption Forum, a working group focused on practical routes into these systems.

The move comes as businesses and industry groups across Europe try to widen participation in data-sharing networks beyond large companies with dedicated technical teams. One of the sector’s main challenges is not the underlying technology, but the expectation that organisations deploy and run the required infrastructure themselves.

That has created cost, skills and integration hurdles, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. Aruba’s approach centres on moving that infrastructure into managed environments, so companies can connect to data spaces without building and maintaining the full stack on their own systems.

Access Model

Aruba is developing managed services based on multi-tenant architectures and plans to offer data space connectors as a service. The model is intended to simplify deployment, automate onboarding and reduce the time businesses need to gain access.

The company is using technologies including Eclipse Dataspace Components and Virtual Connector in that work. The aim is to reduce operational complexity and make costs more predictable for participating organisations, especially smaller firms that may struggle to justify bespoke infrastructure projects.

That matters to European policymakers and industrial groups because SMEs make up a large share of regional supply chains. If data spaces remain expensive or difficult to join, the networks risk being limited to bigger participants, weakening their value as shared industry platforms.

The issue has become more visible as initiatives in manufacturing and transport have moved from concept to operational use. In those sectors, companies are increasingly trying to share information across supply chains while retaining control over how data is used.

Automotive Focus

Aruba pointed to the automotive sector as one of the more advanced examples of data space adoption. It cited Catena-X, a collaborative data ecosystem for the car industry, as an example of a system built around IDSA principles for trusted and sovereign exchange.

Within Catena-X, member companies define standards for interoperability across the supply chain. Aruba is developing a beta release of a connector designed to comply with Catena-X requirements.

The work could support use cases including company certification management and digital product passports. Aruba also linked it to broader supply-chain digitalisation and regulatory preparation, as businesses face growing pressure to document sourcing, production and lifecycle data more consistently.

For cloud providers, the shift offers an opening to position themselves as operators of shared infrastructure rather than simply sellers of computing or storage. In the model being discussed within the Data Space Adoption Forum, providers host compliant environments that allow customers to join data ecosystems with fewer integration demands.

That could change the economics of participation if the service model proves workable at scale. It would also align data spaces more closely with how many companies already consume software and infrastructure, rather than requiring a custom deployment for each new participant.

Founded in 1994, Aruba says it has 16 million users and operates seven data centres. The company has built its business across cloud, data centre and digital services, with infrastructure in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.

“Joining IDSA represents an important step toward contributing to a truly interoperable and accessible data ecosystem,” said Marco Mangiulli, CIO and R&D Director at Aruba.

“The challenge today is no longer to demonstrate the value of data spaces, but to make them scalable and widely adoptable. Through as-a-service models and collaboration with the Association and the Data Space Adoption Forum, we aim to simplify access for businesses, reduce technical barriers, and accelerate value creation across supply chains,” he said.

IDSA has more than 160 member companies and institutions and promotes a framework for data sharing in which data providers retain control over usage. Its work forms part of a broader push in Europe to create trusted industrial data networks that can support cross-border business processes.

“We welcome Aruba as a new member of the International Data Spaces Association. Their active work in the Data Space Adoption Forum brings the practical mindset the market now needs,” said Lars Nagel, chief executive officer of the International Data Spaces Association.

“By focusing on managed solutions and based on a powerful distribution channel of a cloud service provider, Aruba helps turn data spaces into a practical reality especially for SMEs. This is how data spaces become scalable in practice,” he said.

Braze has introduced a new set of artificial intelligence tools for marketers, including AI agents, a creative workflow product and European hosting for one of its decisioning services.

The additions focus on three products: BrazeAI Operator, BrazeAI Agent Console and Braze Creative Studio. They are intended to help marketing teams create campaigns, generate content, manage creative assets and build AI-driven workflows within the Braze platform.

BrazeAI Operator is an in-dashboard assistant designed to help marketers create campaigns, generate content and troubleshoot workflows. BrazeAI Agent Console is a central environment for building and managing custom AI agents for tasks such as personalisation, lead scoring, translation and data interpretation.

BrazeAI Decisioning Studio can now also be hosted in Europe through Google Cloud, a move aimed at companies that want customer data managed within the region to meet local data requirements.

Customer Examples

Braze highlighted several customers using the products. Dayuse, a platform for daytime hotel bookings, used BrazeAI Agent Console to generate messages at send time based on real-time customer information, including booking history, preferences and language.

According to Braze, the work led to a 90% increase in booking conversion rate, doubled incremental revenue for a key campaign and a 23% uplift in repeat engagement. Martin Juglair, CRM Manager at Dayuse, described the operational change behind the result.

“Personalization at this level across marketers used to require significant manual workload. With BrazeAI Agent Console, we were able to scale individualized messaging across languages and regions in a way that feels relevant to each customer. That shift has had a clear impact on how customers engage and return to our platform,” said Juglair.

Cleo, a family care platform, used BrazeAI Operator to rebuild its welcome experience around individual member needs. Braze said the changes resulted in an 81% reduction in unsubscribes, a 97% drop in opt-outs on the first email, a 284% increase in app opens and a 124% lift in push notification engagement.

At the American Diabetes Association, the same tool was used to redesign an eCommerce journey from a single-message format into a multi-step process. Elaine Armbruster, Director of Digital Experience at the American Diabetes Association, said: “I felt like I was talking to someone who worked for Braze. It’s my thought partner. I’m kind of addicted to it. I’m doing things that would have been completely impossible without the Operator.”

Holly Jacobson, Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Cleo, described how the tool was used during campaign development. “The Operator literally thought of ways of using customer data I hadn’t even considered and incorporated it into advanced Liquid code. It prevented issues I wouldn’t have caught until QA, and I wouldn’t have known where to start troubleshooting,” said Jacobson.

Creative Workflow

Braze Creative Studio connects campaign execution with design work by linking Braze with Canva and Figma. Marketers can import creative assets and email templates from those design tools directly into campaigns while using a central interface for templates, media libraries and brand guidelines.

The integration reflects a broader push by software suppliers to bring content production, automation and targeting into a single workflow. Marketing teams have increasingly sought tools that reduce the number of separate systems used to design assets, approve them and deploy them across channels.

Anwar Haneef, Head of Ecosystem at Canva, said the connection between visual design and customer activation was a key part of the collaboration. “The most exciting thing about agentic AI isn’t what any single tool can do on its own, it’s what opens up when the right tools work together. Canva AI gives agents the ability to generate and iterate on visuals at scale, and Braze gets that creative in front of the right audience at the right moment. Closing the loop from visual creation to customer activation is what marketing teams need to keep up, and this integration enables users to seamlessly publish their on-brand Canva assets to Braze while maintaining design integrity,” said Haneef.

Ashley Auger, CRM Technical Manager, Growth at Mercari US, commented on the Figma plugin. “The new Figma plugin is a great workflow hack for marketers like me building asset-heavy campaigns or landing pages on tight deadlines. We all know the headache of juggling multiple tabs just to get one task done, and this tool eliminates that friction by uploading images in a single click. It’s simple, but I rely on it daily to save several minutes on each project,” said Auger.

Competitive Pressure

The latest release comes as software companies race to embed generative AI and automation into marketing platforms. Vendors across customer engagement, advertising and design software have been introducing assistants, agents and automated decisioning tools as clients seek to reduce manual work while increasing personalisation.

Bill Magnuson, cofounder and chief executive officer of Braze, said the company’s focus was on putting working tools into marketers’ hands. “The world’s largest and most sophisticated brands are choosing Braze to drive their AI transformation during this period of rapidly evolving disruption and opportunity. But for AI to matter, it has to be more than a promise. It has to work, at scale, and be enterprise-ready,” said Magnuson.

“Braze is putting powerful, production-ready AI and creative tools directly into the hands of marketers to amplify their impact and define their competitive edge. Our new tools are live, the technology is proven, and the brands that seize this moment will build the businesses that customers remember,” he added.

REGnosys has welcomed additional government funding for the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology, as ministers outlined broader measures for the UK fintech sector.

Chief executive and founder Leo Labeis described the extra £1 million for CFIT as a positive step, but argued that support for growth must go beyond funding announcements and policy signals. He focused on the practical systems and standards firms need to expand and remain in the UK market.

His intervention places REGnosys within a wider debate over how Britain can retain fintech companies as they mature. Ministers have sought to improve the environment for listings and investment, but parts of the sector want greater attention on the structures that govern data, reporting and compliance.

Labeis linked that issue to the government’s recent emphasis on capital markets and initial public offerings. Better listing conditions matter, he said, but they are only one factor for companies deciding where to build and grow.

“Additional support for CFIT is welcome, and it is encouraging to see the conversation at UK FinTech Week focus not just on innovation, but on the conditions firms need to scale in the UK. The future of UK fintech will rely as much on coordination and delivery as it does on new ideas.

The renewed focus from government on capital markets competitiveness and IPO attractiveness is also important. Measures that improve the listing environment send a positive signal to founders and investors, but the real test is whether that ambition is matched by investment in the infrastructure that makes growth operationally viable.

Common data models, machine-readable rules and interoperable reporting frameworks are no longer technical afterthoughts. They are strategic enablers of a modern financial system, helping firms scale more efficiently, reduce compliance friction and strengthen resilience.

London already has deep pools of capital, world-class talent and a strong regulatory base. To build on that, the UK has to show it will back high-growth sectors such as RegTech with the modern infrastructure needed to innovate, scale and ultimately list here,” Labeis said.

Infrastructure Focus

The comments highlight a recurring concern among financial technology companies: growth is constrained not only by access to capital, but also by fragmented operational requirements. Firms expanding across regulated markets must navigate multiple reporting formats, differing data standards and rulebooks that remain difficult to translate into automated systems.

For RegTech companies, those frictions sit at the centre of their business models. The sector argues that clearer data structures and machine-readable regulation can reduce duplication for both financial institutions and supervisors, while making it easier for smaller firms to compete.

That view aligns with a broader push in UK financial services to modernise the plumbing behind regulation. Common data models can help institutions use the same definitions across internal systems and external reporting. Machine-readable rules aim to convert legal and supervisory requirements into formats software can process more directly. Interoperable reporting frameworks are intended to reduce the need for firms to submit similar information repeatedly in different ways.

Scale And Listings

The listing question remains politically sensitive because many UK technology firms have chosen to raise capital or float in other markets. Policymakers increasingly frame that trend as both a competitiveness issue and a test of whether Britain can turn early-stage innovation into larger domestic businesses.

Labeis’s remarks suggest the answer will depend partly on whether regulatory and reporting systems keep pace with policy ambitions. Even where capital is available, firms may still weigh the costs of compliance, integration and expansion when deciding where to locate teams, invest and seek a public listing.

London already offers established advantages in finance, skills and regulation, he noted. His argument is that maintaining that position now requires sustained backing for the systems that make those strengths usable for fast-growing companies.

The focus on RegTech is notable because the sector often sits between financial services policy and digital infrastructure policy. Supporters say it can improve efficiency and resilience across the wider market, rather than serving only a narrow group of software firms.

By framing common data models, machine-readable rules and reporting standards as strategic rather than technical issues, Labeis pushed the discussion beyond fintech promotion alone. His central point was that if the UK wants more firms to scale and list domestically, the operating environment must support that ambition.