Enabling Security Compliance and DevOps Agility in a Regulated Healthcare Environment

Cloud Migration Without Compromise

Migrating core infrastructure and services to Azure was a foundational part of the client’s modernization plan. It had to be done with no interruption to care delivery, no data loss, and without impacting end users—many of whom rely on the platform daily for vital health support.

Maintaining High-Trust Compliance Post-Migration

As a healthcare organization, the client must comply with strict regulatory frameworks such as HIPAA and other trust certifications. The move to Azure needed to preserve—and ideally strengthen—their existing security posture without introducing risk to sensitive health data.

Blog

Dmytro Petlichenko

5 min to read

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DevOps Consulting

Enabling Scalable and Secure DevOps Practices

The client’s engineering team required support in building a DevOps foundation that could handle a high velocity of feature development. This meant enabling secure, dynamic environments that would automatically spin up and tear down in response to GitHub development branch activity—ensuring that compliance and security remained intact throughout the CI/CD lifecycle.

Our Approach

To meet the dual objectives of security and development agility, we delivered a comprehensive solution that addressed both infrastructure and process design:

• Zero-Downtime Cloud Migration: The platform was migrated from AWS to Azure with no service disruption or degradation in user experience.
• Security-First Architecture: We ensured full encryption in transit and at rest, deployed compute resources within private subnets, and implemented fine-grained network controls using firewalls and security groups.
• Ownership of Technical Controls: We assumed full responsibility for implementing and managing all technical controls required under HIPAA. This included every technical preparation needed to meet compliance—from data protection and access control to network design and operational monitoring.
• Dynamic Environment Management: We integrated GitHub workflows with Azure infrastructure to enable on-demand creation of feature environments. Each development branch triggered the provisioning of a dedicated, fully isolated environment, which was automatically destroyed upon branch closure or merge.

GitOps-Driven Ephemeral Environments

One of the standout features of this project was the implementation of ephemeral environments powered by GitHub and Terraform. For every active development branch, a secure and fully functional environment was spun up automatically—complete with networking, compute, and storage. Once the feature branch was merged or closed, the environment was automatically destroyed. This approach enabled safe experimentation, rapid iteration, and cost control, all while maintaining the high level of security required by healthcare regulations.

This GitOps-based mechanism allowed the client to streamline their development process while keeping infrastructure clean and compliant—an important achievement in a security-sensitive industry.

The Results

The outcomes of this engagement were measurable and impactful:

• The client successfully transitioned to Azure with no user disruption, preserving service continuity for thousands of active users.
• Security controls and infrastructure policies were aligned with high-trust compliance requirements, meeting internal audit criteria and regulatory expectations.
• We delivered full coverage of technical HIPAA controls, giving the client peace of mind and a clear path through future audits and certifications.
• Development operations became significantly more agile, with automated, short-lived environments that empowered teams to test and release features faster, while still maintaining a secure perimeter.
• With infrastructure fully codified, the client gained improved visibility, consistency, and control—reducing manual overhead and minimizing the potential for configuration drift.

This project demonstrates how careful planning, secure architecture, and automation can work together to support business growth while staying compliant in a highly regulated environment.