Technically, the X-Road software imposes no limitations on the size of the ecosystem or the member organisations. The ecosystem may be nationwide or limited to organisations meeting specific criteria (e.g., clients of a commercial service provider). Thanks to its scalable architecture and organisational model, X-Road is exceptionally flexible, and it supports various kinds of setups:

• national data exchange layer

• data exchange solution for regions

• data exchange within a business domain or sector

• a platform for data exchange within an organisation.

National data exchange layer

National implementation is probably the most typical way to implement X-Road. In a national implementation, X-Road is deployed nationwide, and the aim is to use it for data exchange between organisations across administrative sectors and business domains. Typically, the ecosystem is open for all kinds of organisations – both public and private sector organisations. However, it is also possible to restrict the implementation to the public sector, a specific administrative sector, a business domain, or a combination of these.

In addition, X-Road can be used to implement cross-border data exchange with other countries that have a national X-Road implementation. In practice, the ecosystems of different countries are connected using federation – an X-Road feature that enables connecting two X-Road environments. Federation enables member organisations across different ecosystems to exchange data as if they were members of a single ecosystem.

In a national implementation, a government agency is usually the owner of the ecosystem. The owner takes on the role of the X-Road operator, responsible for all aspects of operations. The responsibilities include defining regulations and practices, accepting new members, providing support for members, and operating the central components of the X-Road software. Technical activities can be outsourced to a third party, but the operator carries out administrative and supervisory responsibilities.

There are multiple implementations worldwide where X-Road serves as a national data exchange layer. The best-known national X-Road ecosystems are in Iceland, Finland, and Estonia.

Data exchange solution for regions

Regional implementation means implementing X-Road within a region or autonomous community, such as a region, province, or state. In a regional implementation, X-Road is used within a region, and the scope is usually very similar to that of the national implementation – data exchange between organisations across administrative sectors and business domains. However, the scope may be more restricted. Besides, X-Road may be used to exchange data with the central government and/or other regions. 

In a regional implementation, a regional agency or authority is usually the owner of the ecosystem. The owner takes on the role of the X-Road operator, responsible for all aspects of operations. Some technical activities may be outsourced, as in the national implementation.

As an alternative approach, the national implementation described earlier may consist of multiple regional implementations as well. Every region, or some regions, within a country can have its own X-Road ecosystem connected via federation. However, compared to a single national implementation, this approach incurs greater overhead, as each region must manage and operate its own X-Road ecosystem. Therefore, when targeting national implementation, a single national ecosystem is recommended over multiple regional ecosystems connected via federation.

One example of a regional implementation can be found in Argentina. The province of Neuquén in Argentina is using X-Road as a regional data exchange platform. Also, some regions in other countries are currently considering adopting X-Road at the local level.

Data exchange within a business domain or sector

In national and regional applications, X-Road is implemented within a geographic area, such as a country or a region. However, there are no restrictions on why an X-Road ecosystem could not span multiple states and/or regions as long as there’s an organisation that takes the role and responsibilities of the X-Road operator. A practical example of this approach is implementing X-Road within a business domain or sector in which members are located across different countries. However, X-Road could also be implemented at the national level within a business domain or sector.

The critical factor is that all members commit to following the rules and policies of the ecosystem set by the X-Road operator. In this case, the use of X-Road is based on a mutual agreement among ecosystem members. In national and regional implementations, the use of X-Road is often based on a law or a regulation issued by a governmental or regional authority. 

If different business domains have their own X-Road ecosystems, they can be connected via federation, enabling data exchange between member organisations across domains. Technically, a business-domain-specific implementation can be connected to a national or regional X-Road ecosystem as well.

X-Road-based, business-domain-specific solutions have been implemented in several countries. For example, in Germany, X-Road is used to exchange healthcare data, and in Estonia, the X-Road-based Estfeed platform is used for energy sector data exchange. Besides, Estfeed is also used by the Data Bridge Alliance to exchange energy data at the cross-border level.

A platform for data exchange within an organisation

The primary use case for X-Road is data exchange between organisations, but there are no restrictions on using X-Road to exchange data within an organisation as well. For example, a large international organisation with branches and departments across different countries and continents may have information systems that communicate over the public internet. X-Road provides a solution for connecting those systems in a standardised and secure manner, guaranteeing the confidentiality, integrity, and interoperability of data exchange.

In the X-Road organisational model, one department serves as the X-Road operator, and other branches and departments are members of the ecosystem. In addition to connecting information systems communicating over the Internet, X-Road could also be used within an organisation's private network.

One example of corporate use of X-Road is in Japan. A major Japanese gas company uses an X-Road-based solution to exchange data between its different organisational units. Another interesting approach to corporate use is building a commercial product on top of X-Road. Since X-Road is open source and licensed under the permissive MIT license, it can also be used in commercial closed-source products. For example, Planetway, a Japanese-Estonian company, has built its PlanetCross platform using X-Road.

For clarity, X-Road is not a service mesh platform for microservices, such as Istio. X-Road is for data exchange between information systems over the public Internet, while service mesh platforms serve as a communication layer between microservices in a microservices architecture. The high-level capabilities that X-Road and many service mesh solutions provide may seem very similar. Still, the way they have been implemented is optimised for very different use cases. Therefore, X-Road is not to be mixed with service mesh solutions.