Introduction

In the fast-paced world of healthcare technology, delivery speed, deployment reliability, and system stability directly impact both operational performance and patient outcomes. For organizations managing real-time enrollment operations, even minor delays in production releases or configuration changes can cascade into costly service disruptions.

A leading healthcare payer suite - a modular, cloud-based platform used to streamline enrollment and health plan operations - faced a critical challenge: its deployment process could not keep up with increasing product complexity and customer demand. Manual deployments across multiple AWS environments were slow, inconsistent, and prone to failure. Environment mismatches, configuration drift, and slow release cycles prevented the team from scaling efficiently.

My Business Automated partnered with the organization to design and implement a fully automated build-and-deployment pipeline leveraging Puppet, Jenkins, GitHub, and AWS. The transformation resulted in more predictable releases, fewer errors, and dramatic reductions in time, cost, and operational overhead. The result was a high-performance DevOps ecosystem built for speed, scalability, and long-term reliability.

Customer Need

The client needed a modern, automated deployment framework capable of supporting mission-critical healthcare operations. Their goals included:

• Automating end-to-end code deployment from source control to multi-environment release

• Eliminating manual intervention, reducing human error and operational risk

• Standardizing deployments across AWS environments with consistent configurations

• Reducing failures caused by environment drift, mismatched binaries, and inconsistent server setups

• Improving communication and visibility between Development, QA, and Operations

• Tracking build triggers, deployment approvals, and audit trails for compliance and governance

• Accelerating release cycles without compromising security or compliance

Prior to automation, the organization relied on manual steps, email coordination, repeated rollbacks, and lengthy troubleshooting sessions. Every deployment required significant time and effort, with no guarantee that the same process would work across all environments. This lack of consistency slowed down the entire delivery pipeline and drained internal resources.

Challenges

As the project kicked off, several operational bottlenecks were identified:

• Time-consuming, error-prone deployments: Multi-step manual deployments increased the risk of mistakes.

• Frequent environment mismatches: Differences in server configurations led to failed releases and unpredictable behavior.

• Limited visibility and accountability: Teams lacked clear insight into who initiated builds, deployments, or configuration changes.

• Active Directory dependencies: AD credentials were used inconsistently, complicating governance and traceability.

• Siloed communication: Development and Operations worked in isolated workflows, introducing delays and misunderstandings.

• Highly diverse tech stack: Multiple platforms, databases, and services made standardization difficult without automation.

These issues contributed to slow deployment cycles, long recovery times, and inconsistent production outcomes — all critical risks in the healthcare domain.

Solution Provided

My Business Automated delivered a comprehensive DevOps automation framework designed to eliminate manual workflow gaps and create a reliable, scalable, and fully transparent deployment process.

1. Infrastructure & Configuration Automation with Puppet

To eliminate environment drift and ensure consistent server setups:

• Automated provisioning and configuration of all target AWS machines

• Standardized setup for web servers, application servers, and database instances

• Zero-touch deployments for application and configuration updates

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) enabled faster onboarding and environment replication

This aligned all environments — Dev, QA, UAT, and Production — under a unified configuration standard.

2. CI/CD Pipeline Automation Using Jenkins

Jenkins became the organization's centralized orchestration hub:

• Unified control panel for builds, deployments, and release workflows

• GitHub integration ensured instant, automated retrieval of updated code

• Jenkins Pipeline plugin enabled one-click multi-environment deployments

• Role-based approvals governed promotions to QA, staging, and production

• Full email and dashboard notifications improved team visibility

• Active Directory integration secured authentication and streamlined auditing

This created a predictable, transparent, and repeatable CI/CD workflow.

3. AWS Automation

To support a modern, scalable infrastructure:

• Automated provisioning of AWS instances for staging and testing environments

• Integration with deployment pipelines ensured each instance was preconfigured

• Improved resiliency and load distribution across cloud-native environments

• Lifecycle automation enabled faster environment turnover and cleanup

AWS automation helped standardize infrastructure creation and supported continuous delivery at scale.

4. Complete Deployment Workflow Automation

The end-to-end workflow was automated to ensure consistency and reliability:

Code → Build → Artifact Generation → Environment Configuration → Deployment → Validation

Key enhancements included:

• Automated stakeholder notifications at every step

• Full audit trail of triggers, approvals, and deployment events

• Multi-environment artifact reuse for consistent releases

• Consistent, error-free deployment with minimal manual involvement

This eliminated guesswork and guaranteed repeatable results.

Technology Stack

• Puppet: Configuration management & environment standardization

• Jenkins: CI/CD pipeline, orchestration, approvals, notifications

• GitHub: Source control & version management

• AWS Cloud: Multi-environment hosting & automated provisioning

• Active Directory: Secure access control & audit compliance

Benefits & Results

The transformation delivered measurable improvements across efficiency, reliability, and cost:

✔ 70%+ Reduction in Deployment Time

A process that once took hours was reduced to a fast, consistent one-click deployment.

✔ Near-Zero Environment & Configuration Mismatches

Puppet enforced consistent server states across all environments, minimizing deployment failures.

✔ Higher Deployment Frequency

Teams could ship code more often, accelerating development cycles and improving responsiveness.

✔ Improved Dev–Ops Collaboration

Centralized visibility, automated notifications, and clear approval workflows reduced friction between teams.

✔ Enhanced Security & Compliance

With Active Directory and auditing integrated into the pipeline, every build and deployment action became traceable.

✔ Significant Operational Cost Savings

Reduced manual effort, fewer rollbacks, and fewer troubleshooting cycles led to major cost reductions.

✔ A Scalable DevOps Framework for the Future

The new ecosystem prepared the organization for growth, modernization, and continuous delivery.

Conclusion

By combining Puppet, Jenkins, GitHub, and AWS, My Business Automated engineered a high-performance DevOps pipeline tailored specifically for a healthcare payer suite’s complex environment. The results were immediate and transformative: faster releases, better reliability, stronger governance, and significantly lower costs.

This automation framework now serves as the foundation for ongoing product evolution — enabling the organization to scale confidently, meet compliance standards, and deliver consistent value to its users.

References

1. Jenkins Official Documentation – Pipeline & CI/CD Automation
   https://www.jenkins.io/doc/

2. Puppet Documentation – Infrastructure as Code & Configuration Management
   https://www.puppet.com/docs

3. AWS Cloud Documentation – EC2, Automation & Deployment Best Practices
   https://docs.aws.amazon.com/

4. GitHub Documentation – Source Control & Workflow Automation
   https://docs.github.com/

5. NIST DevSecOps Guidance – Secure Automation Practices
   https://csrc.nist.gov/

6. Healthcare IT & Compliance Frameworks (HHS.gov)
   https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/

7. DevOps Research & Assessment (DORA) State of DevOps Report
   https://www.devops-research.com/research.html

8. HashiCorp IaC & Automation Concepts
   https://www.hashicorp.com/resources

9. AWS Well-Architected Framework – Operational Excellence Pillar
   https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected/

10. Atlassian DevOps Guide – CI/CD & Deployment Best Practices
    https://www.atlassian.com/devops