The Architecture describes in technical detail how Simpl-Open is built and how it works. As indicated in the visual on the left, Simpl-Open connects different types of participants to a series of available resources, such as data, applications or infrastructure. The resources and participants can be in a single or in different data spaces.

The Simpl-Open Architecture is organised into six architectural dimensions.

1. The integration dimension contains the capabilities that enable participants to integrate with each other in a secured and trusted manner. These capabilities regard security, access control and trust, resource discovery, federation management, network and IT application framework.

2. The governance dimension provides contingency measures against issues the participants might find while using Simpl-Open. The two main capabilities in this layer are composed of human task forces that either support the participants in finding solutions to technical problems or trigger a response action against security threats in the form of a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT).

3. The administration dimension provides supports and oversees the well-functioning of the other dimensions, as well as for the administration of Simpl-Open. It spans the data, infrastructure and integration layers and allows actors to operate their components in the Data Space.

4. The data dimension encompasses the capabilities to enable the exchange of data resources and applications. It includes capabilities to share, manage, and perform basic analysis on data and applications. Simpl-Open allows data consumers to access various types of data from different providers, enabling interoperability between providers and consumers.

5. The infrastructure dimension allows participants to utilise and manage infrastructure resources offered by infrastructure providers. By allowing users to connect to third-party infrastructure resources, they could, for example, execute applications on them. Simpl-Open does not provide infrastructure itself but allows infrastructure providers to open up internal infrastructure towards data space participants. Both elemental computing and storage resources (e.g. virtual machines, file system storage) as well as PaaS services (e.g. databases, AI hardware) can be provided.

6. The security dimension ensures secure-by-design interactions across all other dimensions. It includes capabilities related to identity, authentication, authorisation, and protection of data and infrastructure resources, and operates across the entire architecture.