Dastra

Dastra is a fictional open-standard framework for data governance and interoperability in distributed systems. It is intended to enable secure data exchange, auditable policy enforcement, and privacy-preserving analytics across organizational boundaries. The concept is used here for illustrative purposes and does not refer to a specific real-world product.

Dastra describes data models and policies with a dedicated language, the Dastra Description Language (DDL), which specifies data schemas, consent and access rules, and privacy constraints. A runtime validator applies these rules to data flows, while a tamper-evident ledger logs events and decisions, providing provenance for data movements and policy outcomes. The system is designed to be modular, featuring a core engine, policy modules, and adapters for common data formats such as JSON and XML.

Key components include the Dastra Core, which handles policy evaluation and orchestration; the DDL compiler, which translates schemas into enforceable rules; policy modules that implement access control models (for example role-based or attribute-based access control); and a ledger layer that records data events and governance decisions in a verifiable log. The architecture emphasizes extensibility, enabling integration with existing identity providers and data processing pipelines.

In the fictional development timeline, Dastra is described as being proposed by the Dastra Alliance in the early 2020s and released as an open-source prototype. It is portrayed as having pilots in sectors such as healthcare and finance, with ongoing discussions about standardization, interoperability, and regulatory alignment.