Direction:

GovTech

GovTech IT Systems: Best Development Practices

Publication date and time:

Mar 27, 2025, 08:00

Reading time:

9 min

Drawing on proven methodologies from MK-CONSULTING and the GovTech Alliance of Ukraine, this guide presents key strategies for developing robust IT architectures. It explores resilient telecommunications, effective configuration management, virtualization, and agile software development, ensuring that government organizations can deploy highly available, fault-tolerant, and cyber-secure IT solutions.

Designed for both IT professionals and decision-makers, this document provides technical insights and strategic direction for optimizing public-sector IT infrastructure. By implementing these best practices, governments can enhance digital governance, safeguard critical infrastructure, and drive long-term digital transformation.

Ukraine has rapidly emerged as a leader in GovTech, driving digital transformation through advanced public sector IT solutions. The rapid growth of e-services, open data, and cybersecurity measures has solidified its global position. However, achieving long-term sustainability requires a structured ecosystem where the government, IT businesses, and international partners collaborate effectively.

Recognizing this need, the GovTech Alliance of Ukraine was established to unite IT companies, government institutions, and industry stakeholders to foster innovation, ensure regulatory alignment, and scale GovTech solutions beyond national borders. This article explores the technical foundation for GovTech infrastructure while also providing strategic insights into Ukraine’s GovTech ecosystem, public-private partnerships, and export potential.

Telecommunications: Building a Resilient Network Backbone

The network infrastructure, the backbone of any IT system, should be built on the foundations of high availability, fault tolerance, and redundancy, acknowledging the inevitability of failures as described by Murphy’s Law. This means incorporating redundancy at all levels of the OSI model.

At the physical layer (L1), all critical nodes must have redundant physical equipment and uplinks. Network equipment should be stacked using LACP for link aggregation, and server equipment should be connected to routers with multipath for path redundancy. Server network cards should be bonded using IEEE 802.3ad for dynamic link aggregation, and critical internet or dark fiber connections should have physical redundancy, ideally following diverse paths to avoid single points of failure.

Moving up to L2, the network should be structured as a loop-free tree using the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) to prevent broadcast storms. Depending on equipment support, Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) or Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) should be employed. The root bridge priority should be manually configured to the lowest value, and the use of MSTP for inter-router trunks should be avoided.

At L3, fault tolerance should be implemented using protocols like VRRP or HSRP for individual servers, and OSPF, EIGRP, or BGP for larger network segments, depending on the specific needs and equipment capabilities. For stateless services, DNS round-robin can be used for load balancing, while service discovery tools like Consul, Zookeeper, or Kubernetes etcd can be employed for dynamic service registration and discovery.

Network segmentation is essential for security and performance. The document recommends segmenting by environment and service type. Each environment (development, sandbox, staging, production) should have its own dedicated address space, and each service type (load balancers, application servers, databases) should be isolated in its own VLAN or subnet.

Firewall: The Gatekeeper

A «default deny» firewall policy is crucial, where only explicitly allowed traffic is permitted. This includes controlling both inbound and outbound traffic, with the production environment ideally operating without direct internet access. Outbound connections to external services should be routed through proxy servers with strict source-destination rules. Inter-VLAN traffic within an environment should also be controlled based on the principle of least privilege.

Configuration Management: Keeping Track of Changes

Network equipment configurations should be stored in a version control system like Git. This system provides a history of changes and backups, and it can be used to track down issues or find examples of specific configurations. Tools like RANCID or a TFTP server can be used for this purpose.

Monitoring and Logging: The Eyes and Ears of the Network

Centralized logging and monitoring of all network nodes are essential for maintaining network health and security. SNMP can be used for collecting network device data, and systems like Icinga, Splunk, or the ELK stack can be used for log aggregation and analysis. Logs should be stored in a structured format for easy analysis and retained for a specified period, for example, two months in structured format and 12 months in raw format.

Network monitoring should be performed by a dedicated system with pre-configured templates and alert triggers based on SNMP data. Critical elements to monitor include uplinks, failover mechanisms, VLANs, VPNs, equipment temperature, overall device health, interfaces, and ports. Tools like Zabbix, with its extensive library of network device templates, can be used for this purpose. The log analysis system can also contribute to monitoring and alerting.

Testing: Ensuring Resilience

Regular testing of the network infrastructure is essential to validate its resilience and security. This includes periodic failover tests, crash tests, bandwidth tests, and vulnerability assessments. Tools like Cisco SLA, fping, and OWASP network testing tools can be used for these tests.

Documentation: The Network Map

Thorough documentation of all network nodes and configurations is crucial for maintaining and troubleshooting the network. This should include a general network overview, branch connectivity, L2/L3 topologies, VLAN descriptions, internet connectivity, DMZ descriptions, VPN configurations, data center connections, and patch panel mappings.

Server Infrastructure: The Engine Room

Virtualization: Flexibility and Efficiency

Server infrastructure should be virtualized to the maximum extent possible, except where vendor or community best practices recommend otherwise, such as for large databases like MSSQL or Oracle. The choice of virtualization system should be based on a weighted assessment of factors like reliability, performance, staff expertise, product maturity, vendor support, and cost.

The type of virtualization and configuration may also vary depending on the environment. For example, a development environment might use a highly available Kubernetes cluster, while a production environment might use a more traditional hypervisor-based solution like Hyper-V, VMware, or KVM/OpenStack with a higher level of redundancy.

The choice of operating system for host and client nodes should consider factors like vendor support, compatibility, staff expertise, consistency, long-term support, and security vulnerabilities.

Scaling: Up and Out

Both physical and virtual servers should be capable of scaling, either vertically by adding resources to a single server or horizontally by adding more nodes to a cluster.

Database Management: Data Integrity and Availability

Databases for production, staging, and sandbox environments should be deployed in a high-availability cluster configuration. The choice of cluster type (master-master, master-slave) and database technology should be guided by the CAP theorem, considering the specific requirements for data availability, consistency, and partition tolerance.

For critical relational databases, automatic failover from slave to master should be avoided to prevent split-brain scenarios. Such recovery operations should be performed manually by administrators.

Application Servers: Containerization and Microservices

Application servers should be virtualized, isolated, and Docker-compatible whenever possible. They should follow the principles of «one server per purpose» and microservice architecture, with a high level of monitoring and logging.

Management Services: Supporting the Core

Management services, such as load balancers, caching services, IDS/IPS, WAF, proxy services, authentication services, DNS, NTP, SMTP, monitoring systems, logging systems, version control systems, vulnerability scanners, and testing frameworks, should be distributed by roles and environments to prevent interference and ensure isolation. The approach to clustering these services should follow the same principles as outlined for databases.

Configuration Management: Infrastructure as Code

Configurations for clusters, servers, environments, and individual services should be stored in a version control system like Git. This provides a history of changes and backups and enables peer review of configuration updates. To apply configuration changes, Ansible playbooks, Helm charts, or detailed instructions should be used.

Testing: Ensuring Stability and Performance

Regular testing of the server infrastructure is essential to validate its stability, performance, and security. This includes periodic failover tests, crash tests, load tests, functional tests, vulnerability scans, and chaos testing (injecting faults to test system resilience). Automated testing should be used whenever possible, but live testing on production systems should be minimized. Tools like Locust, Jenkins, OWASP vulnerability scanning tools, and OpenVAS can be used for these tests.

Documentation: The Server Blueprint

Comprehensive documentation of all server infrastructure components is crucial for maintaining and troubleshooting the system. This should include documentation of storage systems, server inventory, virtualization systems, database clusters, and step-by-step instructions for common and uncommon tasks. The configuration management policy outlined earlier can also contribute to the knowledge base.

Software Development: Building the Tools

Development Approach: Keeping it Simple and Solid

Software development should adhere to principles like KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid), YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It), DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself), Big Design Up Front, and SOLID (Single responsibility, Open-closed, Liskov substitution, Interface segregation, Dependency inversion).

Technology Selection: The Right Tool for the Job

The choice of programming languages, frameworks, databases, libraries, and services should be based on best practices, budget, resources, existing infrastructure, performance requirements, security considerations, developer expertise, and community support. Factors like the TIOBE index and Stack Overflow surveys can provide insights into language popularity and trends.

Process Framework: Agile and Waterfall

A process framework, such as Waterfall, Scrum, or a hybrid approach, should be implemented for software development projects. The choice of framework depends on the project characteristics, team preferences, and organizational structure. Tools like Jira can be used to support the chosen framework.

Version Control: Managing the Codebase

All code should be managed and stored in a central Git repository with a well-defined branching strategy. Code reviews should be mandatory for critical projects, and a clear code review policy and release management process should be in place. Commit messages should be informative and linked to relevant tasks in the issue-tracking system. Direct pushes to the master branch or release branches should be restricted for critical projects.

Configuration and Data Separation: Security and Isolation

Sensitive data and configurations should be strictly separated between different environments. Authentication and authorization parameters should be configurable and not hardcoded.

Logging: Tracking Events and Errors

Logging should be designed to facilitate the use of the ELK stack. It should include structured logs, timestamps, the ability to handle exceptions, and trace logs. Sensitive information should be anonymized in logs.

Testing: Ensuring Quality and Reliability

Software testing should follow ISTQB standards, including unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and acceptance testing. The codebase should have high unit test coverage (at least 90%) and automated functional tests. Automated test pipelines should be integrated into the development process, triggered by code changes and deployments. Tools like Robot Framework can be used for automated functional testing. Live testing on production systems should be minimized.

Code quality and security testing should be performed using tools like SonarQube. Load testing should be conducted for applications with unpredictable user loads, using tools like Locust.

Locust.

Documentation: The Developer’s Guide

All applications should be thoroughly documented, including technical specifications, flowcharts, data schemas, API descriptions, and installation instructions. For critical systems, the documentation should also include a list of used libraries and their versions.

Security: The Fortified Wall

A comprehensive approach to IT security is essential, encompassing all system layers. This includes implementing mandatory security standards, disabling unused ports, changing default credentials, enforcing strong password policies, implementing access controls, conducting vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, deploying security tools like IDS/IPS and WAF, hardening virtual machine images, and implementing multifactor authentication.

All user and administrator accounts should be personalized, and a secure system for storing keys, passwords, and other sensitive information should be implemented. Critical and sensitive data should be stored on encrypted media. All traffic should be filtered through firewalls configured with a «default deny» policy, and the production environment should operate without direct internet access. Necessary outbound connections should be routed through a proxy server with strict access controls.

This IT development concept provides a comprehensive framework for building and managing secure and resilient GovTech systems. By adhering to these principles and utilizing the recommended tools and technologies, government organizations can ensure the reliable and secure operation of their critical IT infrastructure and applications.

This article was prepared by the GovTech Allianсe of Ukraine (GTA UA)