In Algeria, the National Agency for the Improvement and Development of Housing (AADL) recently launched the highly anticipated AADL 3 program, aimed at providing housing to the population through rent-to-own schemes. The official registration launch took place on July 5, 2024, coinciding with Algeria's Independence Day, a symbolic date chosen to mark this major initiative.

Registrations for AADL 3 are exclusively online via a digital platform, an innovation aimed at simplifying and modernizing the process. Applicants must provide their national identification number and social security number, thus eliminating the need for physical documents.

However, despite these digitization efforts, the launch was a total fiasco. The vast majority of citizens reported issues accessing the AADL website, and few managed to complete their registration. Housing Minister Tarek Belaribi acknowledged these technical problems and assured that corrective measures would be implemented to improve the situation.

The recent experience of AADL 3 registrations in Algeria raises a crucial question: Can an Algerian website, like AADL's, truly scale to handle massive demand? Unfortunately, the answer appears to be negative.

Digital Sovereignty: A Barrier to Cloud Solutions

The primary obstacle to scaling a site like AADL's lies in Algeria's digital sovereignty policy. Algerian authorities are hesitant to use foreign cloud solutions like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) due to concerns about protecting citizens' personal data. They fear storing the sensitive information of millions of Algerians, including their personal and financial data, with American providers.

This caution is understandable. Privacy and data protection are critical issues in an increasingly digital world. However, this mistrust creates a surprising paradox. While Algerian authorities refuse to entrust data to American cloud solutions, the private information of Algerian citizens, including their photos and private conversations, is already massively stored on American platforms like Facebook and Google.

Limitations of Local Infrastructure

Choosing to host the AADL site in local data centers, powered by limited bandwidth, adds a layer of complexity. The current Algerian infrastructure is simply not designed to handle significant traffic spikes. Limited bandwidth leads to slowdowns, high response times, and in some cases, complete site crashes.

During the launch of AADL 3 registrations, these limitations were glaring. Users faced access difficulties, non-loading pages, and an inability to complete their registrations. These problems are symptomatic of an infrastructure that cannot scale to meet massive demand.

Even if Algeria's bandwidth and data centers were world-class, the lack of local cloud technologies poses a major problem. Algerian cloud computing solutions are virtually nonexistent, and the presumed lack of proficiency in modern DevOps technologies among AADL engineers further complicates matters. Besides Kubernetes, essential tools like Docker for containerization, Jenkins for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), Terraform for infrastructure as code, and Prometheus for monitoring and alerting, are crucial for effective infrastructure management and scalability.

Without solid expertise in these technologies, it is challenging for local teams to manage complex infrastructures. The absence of automated management and deployment solutions, essential for maintaining resilient and scalable online services, makes the task even more arduous. Thus, even with high-quality hardware infrastructures, the lack of advanced cloud technologies and DevOps skills represents a significant obstacle to the performance and reliability of the AADL site.

The Cost of Autoscaling: A Financial Barrier

Beyond technical and political challenges, there is a crucial financial question. Can an administration like AADL reasonably bear the costs of such intensive autoscaling? The answer seems to be no.

Cloud solutions like AWS (Amazon Web Services) are not present in Algeria, meaning payments for these services must be made in foreign currencies. Given Algeria's administrative complexities and strict monetary policy, which limits foreign currency transactions, financing such an operation would be extremely difficult.

The recurring and high costs of autoscaling based on international cloud solutions are incompatible with the budgetary capacities and financial procedures of Algerian administrations. Monetary constraints make these solutions unviable in the long term for initiatives like AADL.

Imagining a Perfect Architecture for Such a Site

To overcome these challenges, let's imagine an ideal architecture for a site like AADL, designed to be scalable, efficient, and secure.

Microservices and APIs

Instead of building a monolithic application, the solution could be architected in microservices. Each functionality of the site (registration, user management, notifications) would be an independent service, communicating via APIs. This would allow better load management and granular scalability.

Hosting on Amazon ECS

Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) could be used to orchestrate the microservices containers. ECS allows automatic management and scaling of containers based on demand. Each microservice could be packaged in a Docker container, allowing portability and service isolation.

Distributed Database

For data management, a distributed database like Amazon DynamoDB could be used. DynamoDB offers automatic scalability and high availability, essential for a high-traffic site like AADL. User data, registration information, and other metadata would be stored in a distributed manner, reducing bottleneck risks.

Security and Compliance

Data security can be ensured through encryption and key management services like AWS Key Management Service (KMS). Additionally, firewall configurations and strict access controls would be implemented to protect sensitive data.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

To improve loading times and reduce latency, a content delivery network (CDN) like Amazon CloudFront could be used. The site's static resources (images, CSS/JS files) would be distributed worldwide, ensuring quick access for users, regardless of their location.

Conclusion

For AADL and similar initiatives to succeed, it is imperative that Algeria rethinks its approach to hosting and data management. Adopting cloud solutions while ensuring data sovereignty through specific agreements could be a path to explore. For example, regional cloud solutions, operated by local companies but using the cutting-edge technology of cloud giants, could offer an acceptable compromise.

In conclusion, as long as local infrastructures are not improved and the reluctance to use effective cloud solutions persists, initiatives like AADL 3 will continue to face technical obstacles. For the benefit of citizens and administrative efficiency, modernization and a cautious openness to global technologies are necessary.