Five Guys is one of America’s fastest-growing restaurant chains and launched in the UK in 2013.  The Five Guys JV UK operation is growing quite quickly and therefore sought to implement a robust, secure, and scalable AWS cloud-hosted solution for their sales data and analytics system based on Microsoft Windows and Microsoft SQLServer technologies.

Problem Statement

The customer was seeking an AWS Architecture, Migration, and Managed Services solution that met their security, cost, and time requirements. Key challenges with the existing environment included:

– Single point of failure for both Development and Production application

– Performance issues with the production environment

– Need for a robust backup and disaster recovery solution

stackArmor – AWS Partner Solution

stackArmor is an AWS Consulting Services and Value-Added Reseller (VAR) with experience in full lifecycle cloud architecture, migration and operations support services. The firm is staffed with highly experienced and certified AWS Solution Architects that have multiple real-world implementations and are well versed in security best practices for cloud systems. The stackArmor Cloud Solutions team created a scalable, secure, and cost-efficient architecture for the Five Guys JV UK system to achieve their resilience and scalability goals. stackArmor deployed its proven Agile Cloud Transformation (ACTTM) methodology for the cloud migration project. stackArmor ACT is based on the following key design principles:

– Security first architecture that includes boundary protection, identity & access management, continuous monitoring, and data protection

– Highly available architecture including multi-AZ (Availability Zone) based redundancy within a Region.

– Micro-segmentation and isolation of enclaves and application layers using sub-nets, security groups, and access rules.

– Highly automated environment development and deployment to allow for project scalability and the creation of project assets that enable higher levels of productivity and cost-efficiencies over the long run

– Secure Microsoft hosting environment with Windows Server, Microsoft SQLServer, and Active Directory for centralized authentication services to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the analytics platform.

In order to meet the security, reliability, and scalability needs of the application, the proposed solution must provide multi-environment design for Dev, Pre-Prod, and Production enclaves based on design best practices and recommendations.

A multi-enclave architecture for Dev, Staging, and Production instances was created that segregates and hosts the various environments and application components.

Migration Approach and Support Services

stackArmor provided migration and cut-over services including data migration and final production cut-over verification and shutdown of the old environment. During the entire migration process, the stackArmor team was available to assist during the application configuration and deployment process. The assumption is that the client team has expert knowledge about the application and have database management and administration skills.

AWS Platform Operations and Technical Support

stackArmor provided AWS platform operations and provide technical support on an on-going basis.

Customer Testimonial

“We selected stackArmor after thorough due diligence and competitive bidding process. stackArmor’s proposal quality, detail, and depth clearly demonstrated their proficiency in AWS. Their responsiveness and speed at which they turned around our requests stood out.”

— Integration Manager, Five Guys UK

About stackArmor

stackArmor provides full-stack cloud solutions for security-focused customers. Our AWS Solution Architects and Security Engineers have successfully migrated and operated enterprise applications to cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) since 2009. We provide full lifecycle cloud architecture and migration services, cloud operations support, DevOps, and cybersecurity & compliance services for PCI, Healthcare, Financial Services, and Public Sector markets. Please contact us by visiting www.stackArmor.com or send us an email at solutions@stackarmor.com to talk about your cloud migration and support needs.