Scaling Smarter: How StiQ Modernised on AWS with PCG

In an ambitious initiative to revolutionize their digital framework, StiQ, a dynamic player in the K-12 foodservice industry, embarked on a cloud journey with Public Cloud Group (PCG). This venture into Amazon Web Services (AWS) was not just about migration; it was about redefining what a small to medium-sized business (SMB) can achieve with the right cloud strategy.

StiQ is an innovative company based in Greece, focused on improving the K–12 foodservice experience through technology and high-quality nutrition management. Serving schools and local authorities, the company combines deep industry knowledge with a drive for efficiency, using digital tools to make meal planning, ordering, and reporting more transparent and responsive to users’ needs.

For many SMBs, ambitions for innovation, faster service delivery, and improved customer experience often outgrow the limits of outdated digital infrastructure. StiQ was a clear example. As their customer base expanded and online services became central to their operations, their PHP-based website and legacy hosting setup could no longer deliver the speed, scalability, or reliability they needed.

They faced the dual challenge of migrating to a modern, secure cloud platform and establishing an operational model that could support continuous innovation without adding complexity or cost.

PCG approached the project with a focus on simplicity, reliability, and future growth. The team designed a cloud architecture that balanced strong technical foundations with practical business outcomes, ensuring the solution would be both high-performing and easy to maintain for a growing SMB.

PCG's tailored strategy for StiQ included:

• Robust Infrastructure Design: Developing an AWS-based VPC with meticulously configured subnets, ensuring enhanced data security and uninterrupted service availability. The use of multiple Availability Zones fortified the system against potential outages.
• Advanced Security Protocols: Implementing AWS's IAM roles, security groups, and network ACLs, significantly upgrading the security posture—a critical factor for SMBs facing increasing cybersecurity threats.
• SMB-Specific Disaster Recovery Plan: Crafting a disaster recovery strategy with automated backups and multi-zone data replication, a vital safety net for SMBs to maintain continuity in adverse scenarios.
• Optimized Application Hosting: Deploying EC2 instances specifically chosen for their ability to efficiently handle StiQ’s website loads, ensuring superior website performance and user experience.
• Database Efficiency with AWS RDS: Utilizing AWS RDS PostgreSQL, providing a scalable, reliable database service, crucial for SMBs needing to manage growing data without excessive complexity or cost.

The transformation led by PCG delivered measurable improvements across both technical and business dimensions, demonstrating how a well-structured cloud migration can drive efficiency, resilience, and readiness for future expansion.

Scalable, Secure Infrastructure for Reliable Performance

Among the technical improvements, several key outcomes illustrate how the new AWS environment enhanced performance, stability, and control for StiQ:

• Cost-Effective Scalability: A flexible AWS infrastructure that scales automatically with demand, reducing operational overhead.
• Enhanced Security and Compliance: Improved protection through AWS IAM, security groups, and network ACLs, ensuring strong data governance.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlined performance management through AWS RDS and CloudWatch, enabling proactive monitoring and optimisation.

Business Continuity Assurance: A disaster recovery strategy that ensures minimal downtime and maximum resilience.

Stronger Operations and Smarter Decisions

These technical outcomes quickly translated into tangible business advantages. The stronger cloud foundation allowed StiQ to shift focus from infrastructure management to delivering value for customers. Improved system visibility and automation also opened new opportunities for optimisation and service improvements, paving the way for several key business benefits:

• Greater Productivity: Staff can focus on service and growth rather than IT troubleshooting.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Real-time visibility and performance insights drive smarter business planning.
• Peace of Mind: Reliable cloud infrastructure reduces risk and strengthens customer trust.
• Foundation for Growth: The scalable architecture supports new digital initiatives without major reinvestment.

Next Steps: Data Integration and Visualisation
Building on the success of the initial migration, PCG and StiQ continued their collaboration to enhance business insights and data accessibility. The next phase focused on integrating sales data and creating visual analytics dashboards.

• Sales Data Integration: StiQ’s sales data from a third-party company was integrated into a central PostgreSQL database hosted on AWS RDS.
• Automated Data Streaming: AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) was configured to continuously stream data between the PostgreSQL database and OpenSearch.
• Dashboard Creation: Multiple dashboards were developed in OpenSearch to visualise sales performance by location, brand, and sales channel.

Secure Access with Cognito: Amazon Cognito was implemented to manage user authentication and provide secure access to the dashboards.

As StiQ moves toward the next phase of integrating data and visual analytics, the project is set to reach a new level of maturity. This progression reflects a broader challenge many SMBs face: the need to make technology work harder for the business, not the other way around. For growing organisations with limited IT capacity, clear architecture, automation, and visibility can make the difference between keeping up and falling behind.

Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.

With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.

We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.