Industry: Healthcare
Country: Germany
Project type: On-premises Kubernetes deployment (FHIR repository)
Core components: Kodjin FHIR Server + RMK CI/CD toolkit
Fast and Controlled On-Prem Deployment of Kodjin FHIR Server for University Medical Center Freiburg
Client Background
University Medical Center Freiburg (Universitätsklinikum Freiburg) is one of the largest university hospitals in Germany. It combines care, research, and teaching, and operates on a large scale, with over 15,000 employees, approximately 90,000 inpatients, and around 980,000 outpatient visits per year.
Edenlab deployed the Kodjin FHIR Server into the hospital’s on-premises Kubernetes cluster. The scope was intentionally simple: a clean installation where Kodjin acts as a FHIR repository for analytics purposes alongside other standards already used in the client environment.
About the project
Industry: Healthcare
Country: Germany
Project type: On-premises Kubernetes deployment (FHIR repository)
Core components: Kodjin FHIR Server + RMK CI/CD toolkit
This was a straightforward on-prem deployment, but the setting matters. In Germany, health data and clinical systems are often governed by strict regulations. Cloud use is possible, yet it comes with higher compliance and security expectations, and the legal landscape has only raised the bar. Germany often requires tighter infrastructure control, so on-premises is a must-have.
That is why “infrastructure-agnostic” is practical, not a promotional feature for our Kodjin FHIR Server. Hospitals need software that can run in their environment, under their control.
This case focuses on what matters most in real hospital IT: deployment flexibility. We demonstrated that Kodjin can run reliably in Germany’s highly regulated healthcare environment by using Reduced Management for Kubernetes (RMK), our standardized deployment and Kubernetes operations tooling, to make the rollout predictable, repeatable, and low-risk.
Our solution
End-to-end on-prem deployment (done to the client’s rules)
We deployed Kodjin into the hospital’s existing Kubernetes setup. We aligned with their infrastructure standards, then validated that the server worked reliably as a FHIR repository in production-like conditions.
RMK as the centerpiece of delivery
The key part of this case is RMK, a command-line interface product for CI/CD and Kubernetes operations. RMK is designed to make the installation, updates, and day-to-day operation of Kodjin predictable and safe. Instead of relying on manual steps or ad-hoc scripts, RMK provides a standardized delivery workflow that reduces human error and operational risk.
For Kodjin specifically, RMK was built and used as Edenlab’s standard way to deploy Kodjin across cloud and on-prem environments.
Verification after deployment
We didn’t stop at “it’s installed.” We ran basic functional checks (service health, API availability, and simple read/write flows) to confirm the environment was ready for use.
Why RMK (Reduced Management for Kubernetes) matters in a hospital environment
RMK is infrastructure-agnostic by design:
- With this tool Kodjin can be deployed and operated consistently across a wide range of real-world infrastructure setups: from fully on-premises environments under local control, to private or public cloud platforms such as Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, Google GKE, Open Telekom Cloud (CCE), as well as Kubernetes management platforms like Rancher and Kubermatic.
- It can also work with any existing cluster as long as a Kubernetes context is available.
- It wraps the tools teams already use (Helmfile, Helm, kubectl, clusterctl, and more) and ties them together into a single, repeatable flow.
- It leverages Kubernetes Cluster API, including for on-prem scenarios.
- It follows best devops practices like gitops, IaC, etc.
- RMK also supports lightweight local and single-node setups (K3D), which are commonly used for testing, validation, and controlled rollouts before production deployment.
RMK makes hospital IT predictable:
| 60-80% faster time to production | By using standardized and automated deployment workflows, RMK reduces installation and environment setup time and allows hospitals to move from initial setup to production-ready environments in days instead of weeks, even in on-prem deployments. |
| Lower operational risk during updates | RMK introduces built-in versioning and controlled release processes, making updates predictable and reversible. This significantly reduces update-related incidents and minimizes the risk of unplanned downtime that could disrupt clinical workflows or supporting systems. |
| Reduced manual effort and human error | Configuration, environment setup, and secret management are automated and applied consistently across all environments. This removes a large portion of manual operational work and lowers the likelihood of misconfiguration – one of the most common sources of incidents in complex hospital IT landscapes. |
| Clear separation of environments | Development, testing, staging, and production environments are isolated and managed in a consistent way. This enables safe validation of changes before they reach production systems used by clinicians and administrative staff. |
| Scalability across teams and systems | RMK supports parallel work by multiple teams while keeping a single, unified delivery model. This is critical for large hospitals and university medical centers where multiple vendors, internal teams, and systems evolve. |
| Infrastructure flexibility without vendor lock-in | Hospitals retain full control over where systems run today and can adapt infrastructure choices over time. They also can operate Kodjin independently, or rely on Edenlab’s support where internal IT capacity is limited. This allows organizations to choose an operating model that matches their current IT maturity. |
| Proven reliability at scale | RMK has been used continuously since 2021 as Edenlab’s standard deployment and operations tooling. In practice, it has orchestrated 12,000+ Kubernetes environments, handling 2,600+ environments annually and 220+ environments monthly across cloud and on-prem setups. |
Results
- Kodjin FHIR Server was deployed successfully into an on-prem Kubernetes cluster.
- The hospital gained a standardized deployment and update approach that can be reused for future environments, upgrades, or additional Kodjin-based solutions.
- A practical proof that Kodjin works as an infrastructure-agnostic FHIR repository, including on-prem setups standard in Germany.
Solution highlights
- On-prem Kubernetes deployment aligned with hospital infrastructure policies.
- End-to-end rollout plus post-deployment verification.
- RMK-driven deployment and update workflow designed for regulated on-prem hospital environments.
- A consistent path to deploy and manage Kodjin across multiple environments (cloud, on-prem, hybrid).
Running healthcare systems under strict regulatory constraints?
Let’s discuss how Kodjin can be deployed and operated in your infrastructure with predictable updates and minimal operational risk.
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