FSC is the new standard for data sharing
Since January 2025, Federated Service Connectivity (FSC) is the new data sharing standard between government agencies as well as with private parties. This major development makes real-time data sharing safer, better controllable and more efficient.
FSC is a modern, standardised approach that enables organisations to comply with privacy regulations, security requirements and data minimisation needs faster and more easily, Wim Luursema explains. At RINIS, he has been involved with the development of the standard, for which the foundations were laid by the Association of Dutch Municipalities (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten or VNG). VNG took the initiative for the standard and developed the OpenFSC reference software. Logius is involved as the overall director of the standardisation process. RINIS tested and implemented OpenFSC. In addition, we are implementing the standard over at our participants and clients.
“The need for secure, transparent and real-time data sharing has been on the rise for a number of years now”, Wim comments. “The government is keen to see government organisations store their data at a single location from now on, so as to stop all manner of copies being circulated containing data that are not up to date.” However, at the same time organisations are required to facilitate the use of these data by other organisations. Wim: “The challenge we face in doing so is that setting up link-ups is a technically complex and labour-intensive affair, which also means the management of these link-ups takes a lot of time and consequently money.”
Lower costs, higher reliability
The FSC standard does away with these challenges. Using FSC means organisations no longer need to put in place new arrangements for every single data sharing operation. FSC regulates API findability, supports setting up secure link-ups and provides monitoring, transaction logging, a central directory and management at both central and local levels. “Using FSC not only results in lower costs but also in higher reliability of data flows”, Wim comments.
FSC is also part of the REST API Profile of Digikoppeling. This means that government organisations that are planning to set up new data link-ups based on REST APIs in 2025 or 2026 will need to implement FSC. Failing to use FSC will require them to put forward good arguments. These are the so-called implement-or-explain arrangements.
Implementing FSC
FSC can be implemented in any number of different ways. For example, organisations can choose to implement the standard in their own data-sharing software. An alternative would be to use the open source components for FSC that were devised by the organisations concerned. They can also go for a hybrid form. This sees an organisation combine its own tooling with a few open source FSC components.
RINIS’s experts are on hand to provide support in each of these scenarios. This includes support during the orientation stage, with the actual implementation of FSC and throughout the standard’s operational use. The degree of service delivery is something the organisations decide for themselves, Wim goes on to explain. “For instance, we can offer organisations access to just the directory, the learning environment or to the groups we host. That being said, we are also available to provide a full service package when it comes to FSC or even REST APIs, completely relieving organisations of the headache. In doing so we also advise participants and clients of the most appropriate architecture and the onboarding process.”
Is your organisation entertaining plans for new link-ups? Or would you like to find out more about the benefits of FSC? Get in touch with one of our experts at accountmanagement@rinis.nl or call your account manager directly for no-obligation advice.