Although Estonia is a small country, it has made great progress in the field of information technologies. The level of electronization in the country is defined by Electronic Estonia. One of the important elements of e-Estonia is distribution of information systems. Thus, there is no single owner or controller of the information systems. Every government agency or business in the country can choose the product that’s right for them. Another advantage of the system is that services are added to the system automatically, as they are ready.
X-Road is the backbone of e-Estonia. It’s the invisible yet crucial environment that allows the nation’s various e-services databases, both in the public and private sector, to link up and operate in harmony. X-Road is the all-important connection between these databases, the tool that allows them to work together for maximum impact. All of the Estonian e-solutions that use multiple databases use X-Road. All outgoing data from the X-Road is digitally signed and encrypted. All incoming data is authenticated and logged.
Originally X-Road was a system used for making queries to the different databases. Now it has developed into a tool that can also write to multiple databases, transmit large data sets and perform searches across several databases.
X-Road was designed with growth in mind, so it can be scaled up as new e-services, with their various platforms, come online.
• Over 287 million queries were done over X-Road in 2013.
• Over 170 databases offer their services over X-Road.
• Over 2,000 services are used over X-Road.
• More than 50% of the inhabitants of Estonia use X-Road.
X-Road enables services to be offered quickly and conveniently:
• Online registration of permanent residence;
• Checking one’s personal data (address registration, exam results, health insurance, etc.);
• Online declaration of taxes;
• Online verification of the validity of driving license and vehicle registration certificate;
• Issuance of health insurance to a newborn child automatically.