Overview
Faced with complexity and scaling issues in its on-premises data center, Zen Group opted to migrate and modernize its IT environment on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Working with AWS Partner DailiTech, the organization successfully moved its point of sale, customer relationship management, and other critical systems to AWS. As a result, Zen Group achieved 90 percent greater scalability and reduced IT operational costs by 20 percent. The move also unlocked innovation, with the organization developing a real-time data analytics capability for better decision-making and becoming AI-ready for next-generation services.
About Zen Group
Launched in 1991, Zen Group is one of Thailand’s leading food companies, operating over 300 restaurants and franchises. The group operates both Thai and Japanese restaurant brands including ZEN, AKA, On the Table, and Sushi Cyu.
Opportunity | Overcoming on-premises barriers to growth and innovation
Zen Group needed to overcome the limitations of its data center to deliver its digital transformation goals. Its on-premises infrastructure was complex to manage and lacked scalability, hindering growth. Plus, insufficient processing power and data storage meant the facility couldn’t support the group’s data analytics and AI ambitions. Woraphan Thanamthiang, IT director for Zen Group, says, “It was clear that our legacy systems couldn’t deliver transformation, and we had to modernize to keep developing.”
These constraints also created risks for business continuity. With a shortage of cloud skillsets, Zen Group required expert assistance to transfer its critical workloads without compromising data security and compliance. “When IT supports more than 300 outlets from 9 am to 10 pm seven days a week, we couldn’t afford for a migration to the cloud to disrupt operations and impact our customers,” explains Woraphan.
“With auto-scaling on AWS, we don’t have to worry about systems suffering during customer traffic surges–everything stays stable and responsive.”
Woraphan Thanamthiang, IT Director, Zen Group
Solution | Migrating critical business applications to a scalable cloud environment
To embrace the flexibility of the cloud, Zen Group turned to AWS Partner DailiTech. As an AWS Migration and Modernization Consulting Competency Partner, DailiTech delivered the migration while also providing training and support to help close Zen Group’s cloud skills gaps. “DailiTech was the right AWS partner for us,” Woraphan says. “Besides delivering the migration, DailiTech also provided knowledge training and support to help close our skills gaps.” To maximize efficiency, DailiTech adopted the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), which employs an outcome-driven framework, tools, funding, and AWS support to simplify cloud journeys. DailiTech’s cloud design incorporated Amazon GuardDuty for intelligent threat detection and AWS Security Hub, which security teams use to view overall security and compliance status.
For the migration, DailiTech deployed AWS Direct Connect to transfer data from the on-premises location to the cloud via a dedicated connection, providing enhanced speed and security. It migrated the group’s point of sale (POS), sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) virtual instances, with Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for SQL Server for its databases. To support future analytics and reporting, DailiTech designed a centralized data lake on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which Zen Group plans to implement. “Thanks to careful planning and support from DailiTech, the migration to AWS ran smoothly and we resolved any challenges along the way without disrupting the business or our customers,” adds Woraphan.
Outcome | Unlocking innovation to drive 20% greater business growth
Zen Group eliminated the data center limitations that were holding back development. Now, when data traffic increases by up to 20 percent during campaigns and promotions, the infrastructure supporting the POS and other systems scales rapidly to maintain high performance. “With AWS, we don’t have to worry about system stability during customer traffic surges—everything stays stable and responsive,” says Woraphan.
The migration improved efficiency, lowering IT operating costs by 20 percent and freeing resources for business development. On AWS, scaling is 80–90 percent faster, and monthly security incidents have dropped by 50–60 percent through the automation of routine checks. “By automating security checks, we’ve cut incidents by more than half, which gives our team more confidence and focus,” Woraphan says. Management efficiency has improved by 40–50 percent as IT staff shift from hardware maintenance to higher-value activities. These improvements are projected to support 15–20 percent business growth, representing a potential revenue uplift over the next three to five years. “With our data platform, scalable infrastructure, security, and built-in resiliency on AWS, we’re getting AI-ready at exactly the right time,” Woraphan adds.
AWS Services Used
