From every legally binding e-signature to a cross-border certified email, data centres keep the gears of digital trust turning, as Andrea Sassetti, CEO of Aruba PEC and President of AssoCertificatori, explains.

What is the trust economy and why is it important today?

In today’s hyper-connected world, trust is a defining element of digital interactions. From signing a contract to accessing a government service, the ability to verify identity, ensure data integrity, and guarantee the legal validity of a transaction is now essential. This paradigm shift has given rise to what is increasingly referred to as the trust economy – an ecosystem where digital trust is a competitive asset.

While much of the attention focuses on regulation, standards, and the user experience, one critical component often remains in the background: infrastructure. Trust in the digital realm is not just built on policies and certificates; it is sustained by physical systems that ensure security, continuity and performance.

How do you know which companies are qualified to provide digital trust services?

Qualified Trust Service Providers are certified companies who provide key digital trust services. These services include secure digital signatures, website authentication, certified electronic delivery systems and qualified archiving services. Their job is to make sure that when people or businesses interact online – whether signing a contract, sending an official document, or accessing a public service – everything is safe, authenticated, and carries legal proof.

What sets QTSPs apart is not just the range of services they offer, but the level of assurance and compliance they must guarantee. They operate within a stringent regulatory framework that demands full traceability, strong authentication, system resilience, and data protection. This high bar means that their operations must be supported by infrastructures capable of meeting such exacting standards, starting with where and how their systems are hosted.

What role do data centres play in supporting digital trust services?

Behind every digital signature, certified email, or secure data exchange lies a complex technological backbone. And at the core of this backbone are data centres – the high-reliability environments where trust services are hosted, safeguarded, and maintained. Without them, the services provided by Qualified Trust Service Providers (QTSPs) simply could not exist at scale or with the high levels of availability and assurance required.

For QTSPs, data centres are where ‘everything happens’. They host the systems that create electronic signatures, validate identities, store legal proofs, and protect sensitive data. These environments are built with layers of protection and redundancy: they have backup systems in case of power failure, physical security and strict protocols to prevent data breaches or system interruptions. Additionally, they are engineered for energy efficiency – a crucial factor in today’s resource-intensive digital landscape.

How do trust services translate into real-world applications for public and private sectors?

While trust services might seem abstract, their impact is immediate, practical and integrated into the everyday operations of public institutions and private organisations. At the core of these activities lies a dependable and well-connected infrastructure that enables them to function seamlessly.

Consider a few examples: when someone sends a certified communication to a government office, that message is transmitted through a qualified electronic delivery service. When a hospital digitally signs a patient’s medical report, it relies on a qualified electronic signature backed by a secure timestamp. When a company files a legally binding contract online, a QTSP ensures that the signature and identity verification meet the strictest compliance standards.

Each of these interactions, though simple on the surface, relies on a chain of trust that begins in a resilient and scalable data centre infrastructure. These facilities are where credentials are generated, digital identities are validated, documents are archived and all legal and technical proofs are maintained in accordance with the eIDAS regulation.

What does the future of cross-border trust services look like in the EU?

One standout example is the recent proof of concept between Aruba PEC and Asseco Data Systems, which enabled certified cross-border document delivery between Italy and Poland. This interoperability test between two distinct national systems showcases the power of trust infrastructure to facilitate seamless digital interactions across borders – all while ensuring full compliance with EU regulations and reliable service continuity.

Whether it’s authorising access to a public benefit, validating a transaction between companies in different countries, or securely archiving legal documents, modern trust infrastructure ensures that all these processes are not only digital – but also reliable, auditable, and legally valid.

In the trust economy, every real-world use case shares a common foundation: secure, resilient, scalable and high-availability digital infrastructure maintained by QTSPs.