Case Study: Zynx Health achieves faster, more reliable product delivery with Chef

Changing the workflow at Zynx Health with Chef

Zynx Health, part of the Hearst Health network, needed to speed product delivery across a mixed environment of Windows and Red Hat Linux servers, cloud and data-center deployments, and multiple legacy and greenfield platforms after a recent acquisition. The team was already practicing Agile CI/CD but faced technical debt, inconsistent workflows, and time-consuming manual tasks that hindered velocity.

By upgrading and standardizing on Chef alongside AWS automation (ZAWS), Jenkins, PowerShell/DSC and better source control practices, the team automated deployments, improved cookbook management, and broadened cross-training between Windows and Linux engineers. The change cut a manual 22.5-man-hour, per-release deployment down to a 4-hour cookbook build and a 30-minute automated rollout, provided analytics to show faster delivery, and produced reusable workflows that are being shared across Hearst as they expand cloud use and further automation.

Zynx Health