Technology Foundation
1. Digital Sovereignty Through Strategic Choice
For a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), technological sovereignty is not about owning every server—it’s about owning the data and the destiny.
We achieve this by selecting technologies that offer the velocity of managed services while ensuring data portability and open standards. We refuse to build “black boxes” we can’t open, but we also refuse to drown in infrastructure we can’t maintain.
This blueprint therefore adopts a Cloud-Native, Open-Core philosophy. We use best-in-class managed services to move fast, but we choose services that are open-source compatible, ensuring we can always export our data and business logic if we need to migrate.
2. Calculated Risk: The “Leapfrog” Strategy
The primary risk to government digital systems is stagnation due to complexity.
Traditional enterprise stacks require armies of DevOps engineers, database administrators, and security specialists—talent we have in limited supply. Attempting to replicate this locally is a recipe for failure.
We are taking a calculated risk to rely on managed platforms.
- The Upside: We eliminate 80% of the operational burden (patching, scaling, backing up, securing physical infrastructure).
- The Downside: We rely on external vendors.
- The Mitigation: We choose vendors that are Open Source (Convex, Clickhouse) so we are never truly locked in.
This allows our small team to punch above its weight, delivering world-class services with a fraction of the staff.
3. Reference Technology Stack (Default Platform)
The following stack is the mandatory reference implementation for all new government digital services.
Application Architecture: SvelteKit + Convex
We adopt a Serverless-First architecture.
- Frontend: SvelteKit handles the user interface and routing. It is lightweight, fast, and easy to learn.
- Backend & Database: Convex replaces the traditional API/Database layer.
Why Convex? Convex is a reactive backend-as-a-service. It combines the database, backend functions, and file storage into a single platform.
- Real-time: Data updates automatically push to the UI (no more “refresh page”).
- Typesafe: End-to-end type safety between database and frontend eliminates entire classes of bugs.
- Zero Ops: No database provisioning, connection pooling, or migration scripts to manage.
Analytics & Audit: Clickhouse
For high-volume data—audit logs, traffic analytics, and heavy reporting—we use Clickhouse.
- Performance: Clickhouse is lightning fast for analytical queries over billions of rows.
- Specialization: It keeps our transactional database (Convex) clean and focused on user applications, while offloading the heavy analytical work.
- Open Standard: Clickhouse is widely deployed and open source.
Identity & Access Management: Keycloak / Managed Auth
We continue to unify identity. While Convex handles row-level security, we integrate with a central Identity Provider (IdP) to ensure a single government login for all citizens and staff.
4. Architectural Risk Assessment: Managed Services vs. Operational Burden
We have explicitly chosen the risk of Vendor Reliance over the risk of Operational Failure.
| Risk Type | Traditional Self-Hosted | Modern Managed (Convex/Clickhouse) |
|---|---|---|
| Complexity | HIGH: Needs DBAs, SysAdmins, Security Ops. | LOW: handled by platform. |
| Maintenance | HIGH: Manual patches, upgrades, scaling. | ZERO: Automatic. |
| Data Lock-in | LOW: We own the DB files. | MEDIUM: Data is portable, but migration requires effort. |
| Cost Model | CAPEX: Hardware + Staff salaries. | OPEX: Pay-per-use + smaller staff. |
Strategic Verdict:
For our context, the risk of services failing because we cannot maintain them is far greater than the risk of a vendor changing terms. We mitigate the vendor risk through open-source choices, but we cannot mitigate the maintenance risk without a massive increase in headcount. Therefore, the Managed Service path is the responsible choice.
5. Scope Boundaries
This stack applies to:
- Citizen Portals: Licenses, tax filing, applications.
- Internal Tools: Dashboards, case management, workflow tools.
- Public Data: Statistics, reporting sites.
6. Talent Implications
This stack dramatically lowers the barrier to entry.
- No SQL Required: Developers write TypeScript functions, not complex SQL queries.
- No DevOps Required: Developers deploy with one command, not complex CI/CD pipelines.
This allows us to train Product Developers—engineers who focus on solving human problems, not configuring servers. This aligns perfectly with our national goal to build a digital workforce quickly.
7. Conclusion
We are building for the future, not repeating the past. By betting on Convex and Clickhouse, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is choosing speed, simplicity, and citizen value over legacy complexity. We are building a government that operates at the speed of the cloud.