diff --git a/integration_tests/cdk/app.py b/integration_tests/cdk/app.py
index e647d90..8f9384b 100644
--- a/integration_tests/cdk/app.py
+++ b/integration_tests/cdk/app.py
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@
 )
 import datetime
 
-# to get (almost) unique stack ids
-timestamp = datetime.datetime.utcnow().strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
+# to get (almost) unique stack ids but encoded in letters because cfn doesn't like numbers sometimes
+timestamp_in_letters = ''.join(['abcdefghij'[int(i)] for i in datetime.datetime.utcnow().strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")])
 
 
 class VpcStack(Stack):
@@ -140,13 +140,13 @@ def __init__(
 
 app_config = build_app_config()
 
-vpc_stack = VpcStack(scope=app, app_config=app_config, id=f"{app_config.build_service_name('vpc')}-{timestamp}")
+vpc_stack = VpcStack(scope=app, app_config=app_config, id=f"{app_config.build_service_name('vpc')}-{timestamp_in_letters}")
 
 pgstac_infra_stack = pgStacInfraStack(
     scope=app,
     vpc=vpc_stack.vpc,
     app_config=app_config,
-    id=f"{app_config.build_service_name('pgstac')}-{timestamp}"
+    id=f"{app_config.build_service_name('pgstac')}-{timestamp_in_letters}"
 )
 
 app.synth()
diff --git a/integration_tests/cdk/config.py b/integration_tests/cdk/config.py
index 729aa8c..cf4dedd 100644
--- a/integration_tests/cdk/config.py
+++ b/integration_tests/cdk/config.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ class AppConfig(BaseSettings):
         description="AWS account ID"
     )
     project_id: str = pydantic.Field(
-        description="Project ID", default="eoapi-cdk"
+        description="Project ID", default="eoapicdk"
     )
     stage: str = pydantic.Field(description="Stage of deployment", default="test")
     # because of its validator, `tags` should always come after `project_id` and `stage`