About STACKIT
STACKIT is the cloud platform of the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland) and offers a fully sovereign alternative to US American hyperscalers as a German cloud provider. With data centers exclusively in Germany, STACKIT guarantees maximum data sovereignty.
The Challenge
The Schwarz Group uses a sovereign Google Workspace and needed an internal AI assistant for employee training - with a clear requirement: No data may leave Germany.
Classic AI solutions like ChatGPT or Claude were not an option since they run on US servers and would process sensitive company data.
The Solution: STACKI - The Sovereign Chatbot
innFactory developed STACKI, a RAG-based chatbot that runs entirely on STACKIT infrastructure and uses exclusively German data centers.
Technical Architecture
LLM Inference:
- LLama 3 as open source Large Language Model
- STACKIT Model Serving for GPU-accelerated inference
- No dependency on external AI providers
Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG):
- PGVector in PostgreSQL for vector embeddings
- Indexing of internal training materials
- Context-aware answers based on company knowledge
Cloud-Native on STACKIT:
- STACKIT Kubernetes Engine (SKE) for container orchestration
- STACKIT Git for version control and CI/CD
- Fully German infrastructure
What is RAG?
Retrieval Augmented Generation combines the strengths of Large Language Models with company-specific knowledge:
- Retrieval: Relevant documents are retrieved from the knowledge base
- Augmentation: These documents are passed as context to the LLM
- Generation: The LLM generates a response based on the provided context
The result: Precise answers with reference to internal documents - without the LLM needing to be trained on this data.
Our Services
- Architecture Design for sovereign AI applications
- RAG Pipeline development and optimization
- LLM Integration with STACKIT Model Serving
- Vector Database setup with PGVector
- Kubernetes Deployment on STACKIT SKE
- DevOps Pipeline with STACKIT Git
The Results
With STACKI, the Schwarz Group has an AI assistant that:
- Runs 100% sovereign in German data centers
- Intelligently searches and summarizes internal documents
- Supports employee training on the sovereign Google Workspace
- Transfers no data to external providers
- Is GDPR compliant and AI Act ready
Why STACKIT?
| Aspect | US Hyperscaler | STACKIT |
|---|---|---|
| Data Storage | Globally distributed | Germany only |
| Legal Framework | US CLOUD Act | German Law |
| LLM Provider | OpenAI, Anthropic | Open Source (LLama) |
| Data Access | Theoretically possible | Excluded |
| Sovereignty | Limited | Complete |
CompanyGPT on STACKIT
Based on this reference, our CompanyGPT product is now also compatible with STACKIT Model Serving. Companies can thereby operate a fully sovereign AI assistant - Made in Germany.
Related Services: STACKIT Cloud | AI & Machine Learning | Digital Sovereignty
Developed in partnership with STACKIT, the sovereign cloud provider of the Schwarz Group.
