- Governments significantly rely on U.S.-based servers, particularly in regions like Latin America.
- Governments that primarily use their infrastructure often use a single network for most of their content. In contrast, those leveraging third-party providers tend to diversify across multiple networks.
- Governments can better serve their citizens while safeguarding their digital assets by weighing the trade-offs between third-party providers and in-house control.
With nearly two billion visits to federal websites in the U.S. each month and 77% of citizens in the Asia-Pacific region using digital platforms for essential services, the impact of digital government is undeniable. But what powers these digital services to operate smoothly and securely?
A new study led by Professor Bustamante’s research group at Northwestern University examines, for the first time, the infrastructure behind public-facing government websites worldwide. It sheds light on how governments host their digital services and the trade-offs they face in deciding where and how to host their digital infrastructure.
Two Trends Shaping Government Hosting Strategies
Two global trends are currently shaping the way governments host their digital platforms:
- Adoption of Third-Party Hosting: Like other sectors, governments increasingly turn to third-party service providers, such as Cloudflare and Amazon, to host their content. These providers offer compelling advantages, including unparalleled expertise, scalability, high availability, robust security, and the potential for significant cost savings.
- Push for Digital Sovereignty: Simultaneously, a growing movement toward digital sovereignty is pushing governments to retain control over their data. This trend is reinforced by legal frameworks such as the GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and LGPD in Brazil, all of which emphasize data protection and localization. Although some cloud providers (such as AWS, with its tailored solutions for the U.S. government) have adapted to meet these demands, third-party services remain foreign-owned for many countries, raising concerns about data sovereignty and reliance on external providers.
These two forces present governments with a complex challenge: leveraging the advantages of third-party expertise and scalability while addressing the imperative to safeguard data sovereignty and maintain control over their digital assets.
How Governments Host Their Digital Services
The study analyzed over one million unique web resources from government websites across 61 countries. The findings highlight a widespread reliance on third-party infrastructure and notable examples of cross-border data flows and infrastructure centralization. For example:
Third-Party Providers Dominate — 62% of government URLs worldwide are hosted by third-party providers.
Domestic vs. International Hosting — While 87% of all government URLs are served from domestic servers, regional differences are stark. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, serves nearly half of its URLs from international servers, compared to less than 2% in North America (Figure 1).
Cross-Border Hosting Dependencies— There is significant reliance on U.S.-based servers, particularly in regions like Latin America. For instance, Mexico hosts 79% of its government URLs in the U.S., while Costa Rica relies on U.S.-based servers for half its government services.
Historical ties influence hosting decisions; for example, Morocco, a former French protectorate, continues to host about a third of its government URLs in France.
Geographic proximity also plays a role, as seen in New Zealand, where approximately 40% of government URLs are hosted in Australia. This is likely due to the countries’ close ties and limited local infrastructure in New Zealand.
Infrastructure Centralization — Cloudflare provides services for 49 governments worldwide (Figure 2) and hosts up to 72% of a single country’s government content.
Infrastructure Diversity — Governments that primarily use their infrastructure often use a single network for most of their content. In contrast, those leveraging third-party providers tend to diversify across multiple networks.
Why These Choices Matter
Government decisions about hosting their digital services have far-reaching implications. They influence website performance, resilience, and security, as well as the sovereignty and privacy of government data.
These decisions affect citizens’ access to essential services and the protection of sensitive information. For policymakers, they underscore the need to balance efficiency and expertise with control and independence carefully.
The findings of this study emphasize the importance of thoughtful strategies as governments adopt digital solutions. Governments can better serve their citizens while safeguarding their digital assets by weighing the trade-offs between third-party providers and in-house control.
Digital government is the future—ensuring it’s built on secure, equitable, and resilient foundations is a challenge we must face together.
Read our paper for further information.
Contributors: Esteban Carisimo (Northwestern University), Lukas De Angelis Riva (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Mauricio Buzzone (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Fabián E. Bustamante (Northwestern University), Ihsan Ayyub Qazi (LUMS) and Mariano G. Beiró (Universidad de San Andrés, CONICET).
Rashna Kumar is a final-year PhD candidate at Prof. Bustamante’s AquaLab research group, Department of Computer Science, Northwestern University.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Internet Society.