We are proud to announce the 2019 DevOps Dozen finalists. When we first launched five years ago, I hoped the DevOps Dozen would grow into an award that would honor the best of the best in the maturing DevOps space.

This year, we have included three new categories: Best DevOps Practitioner of the Year, Best DevOps.com Podcast of the Year and Best DevOps Conference of the Year.

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Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

Don’t know

How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

Not valuable

How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

Don’t know

Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

Don’t know

How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

Don’t know

Other

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Our finalist are definitely the most outstanding leaders in DevOps. Congratulations to each and every one of the finalists in the 12 categories. It is quite an accomplishment to make it this far into the process. Whether you’re chosen as a winner or not, you should be proud to be part of such an impressive list, and don’t get discouraged as there will be more opportunities in the future.

Since the nomination process was opened to the public, our team has gone through thousands of votes to pick out the finalists in each category. It was not an easy task, as we couldn’t automate (DevOps) it—we had to do it by hand. Many thanks to the everyone here at DevOps.com for doing this.

The next step in the process is for the finalists in each category to submit a presentation on why they deserve the award. Please email your final presentation to [email protected] by Dec 15, 2019. That information will be passed onto our panel of judges who will then select the winners. The 12 (it is the DevOps DOZEN, after all) winners will be announced in December.

Here Are the 2019 DevOps Dozen Finalists

1. Best DevOps Solution Provider

• Broadcom
• CloudBees
• GitLab
• IBM
• JFrog
• Plutora

2. Best DevOps Practitioner of the Year

• Dinesh Ramamurthy, Engineering Manager, Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc.
• Mark Moncelle, IT Architect, State Farm
• Daniel Ritchie, Distinguished Engineer, Broadridge Financial Solution
• Mirco Hering, Global DevOps practice lead, Accenture
• Jasmine James, IT Manager – DevOps CoE, Delta Air Lines

3. Best DevOps Solution Provider Executive

• Ashok Reddy, SVP & GM, Enterprise Software Division, Broadcom
• Barry Baker, Vice President, IBM Z Software
• Chris O’Malley, President and CEO, Compuware
• Sacha Labourey, CEO, CloudBees
• Shlomi Ben Haim, Co-Founder and CEO, JFrog
• Sid Sijbrandij, CEO GitLab

4. Best DevOps.com Podcast of the Year

• CI/CD Scalability Lessons – Startup to Enterprise, CircleCI
• Red Hat Developer Experience in the IBM Era, Brad Micklea
• Cisco DevNet – DevOps and the Programmable Network, Susie Wee
• Shift Right DevSecOps w/ Capsule8 & Pete Markowsky
• Jfrog Acquires Shippable – An Executive Conversation 

5. Best DevOps Book/eBook of the Year

• The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data – Gene Kim
• War and Peace and IT: Business Leadership, Technology, and Success in the Digital Age – Mark Schwartz
• DevOps Paradox: The truth about DevOps by the people on the front line – Viktor Farcic
• Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow – Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais
• Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow – Mik Kersten
• Engineering DevOps: From Chaos to Continuous Improvement … and Beyond – Marc Hornbeek

6. Top DevOps Evangelist

• Baruch Sadogursky, Developer Advocate, Jfrog
• Brian Dawson, DevOps Evangelist, CloudBees
• Jeff Keyes, Director Product Marketing, Plutora
• Matt Stratton, DevOps Advocate, PagerDuty
• Robert Reeves, CTO, Datical
• Rosalind Radcliffe, Distinguished Engineer, Chief Architect for DevOps z Systems, IBM
• Sanjeev Sharma, Vice President, Global Practice Director, Data Modernization & Strategy, Delphix 

7. Best DevOps Transformation

• Allstate
• HSBC
• Broadridge Financial Solutions
• Zions Bancorp
• Royal Bank of Canada
• Societe General
• Sony Pictures Entertainment

8. Best DevOps Transformation Leader

• Courtney Kissler, Vice President, Global Technology, Nike
• Fernando Cornago, Senior Director, Platform Engineering, Adidas
• Rajeev Mahajan, CIO Engineering & DevOps, HSBC
• Russel Webster, VP & Sr. Manager, Delivery Tools & Services, Zions Bancorp
• Shahin Mohammadkhani, Executive Director, Information Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment

9. Best New DevOps Solutions Company

• RAFAY
• Altitude Networks
• Omnition
• Armory
• Lumigo
• Capsule8

10. Top DevOps Conferences

• DevOps Enterprise Summit
• Red Hat Summit
• DevOps World | Jenkins World
• JFrog SwampUp
• KubeCon & CloudNativeCon

11. Best DevOps Presentations of the Year

• Expert Panel: Workplace Engagement & Countering Employee Burnout, Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Dr. Christina Maslach, Dr. Steve Spear and Gene Kim
• Infrastructure as Code (Yes, it applies to z/OS as well) – Rosalind Radcliffe, IBM
• Fireside chat with Chris O’Malley and Joe Aho of Compuware with Gene Kim
• Jenkins Performance: Avoiding Pitfalls, Diagnosing Issues & Scaling for Growth by Owen Mehegan & Ryan Smith. CloudBees
• Deliver Results, Not Just Releases: Control & Observability in CD by Dave Karow, Split.io

12. Best DevOps.com Article of the Year

• Mainframes: The Cloud Before the Cloud By Bob Reselman
• Why DevOps is Like Football by Brian Dawson, CloudBees
• Focusing on the True DevOps North Star: Continuous Improvement by Rick Slade, Compuware
• DevOps Tools Democratize the View From Both Sides by Dave Karow, Split.io
• Three Insights from the World’s Leading IT Organizations by Deepak Jannu, OpsRamp
• Linus Torvalds Sees Lots of Hardware Headaches Ahead by Mike Vizard

Thanks to everyone who voted and nominated candidates. Good luck to all of the finalists!

Stay tuned and, as always, thanks for supporting DevOps.com and the rest of the MediaOps family of communities. If you have questions, please write us [email protected].  Also if you want to be included in next years DevOps Dozen awards you need to subscribe to DevOps.com and look for announcements next September.

— Alan Shimel