The DevOps Dozen awards are back and now open for nominations. This fifth annual DevOps Dozen honors the best of the best—the leaders and innovators in the DevOps community. This year’s awards will include 12 categories, including three new ones, with a winner chosen from each. As in years past, the top four to six nominees in each category will become finalists, who will be selected based upon the number of nominations they received. Nominations are made by you, the audience, and you can nominate up to two entrants in each category; however, you can nominate someone only once. In addition, everyone nominating will be required to provide their name and email address to help stem any potential ballot-stuffing. The winners will be selected by our esteemed panel of judges.

Last day to submit your nominations for the DevOps Dozen 2019 awards is Oct 10. Here’s where to vote: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/devopsdozen2019

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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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Who are the judges? This was tough. We couldn’t have anyone who might be eligible for an award. That disqualifies vendors, practitioners and many others. However, I think we have four great judges:

1. Alan Shimel, founder and editor in chief, DevOps.com
2. Jayne Groll, CEO and co-founder of the DevOps Institute
3. John Willis, CEO and founder, Botchagalupe Technologies
4. Charlene O’Hanlon, managing editor, MediaOps Inc.

The 2019 DevOps Dozen Categories

So what are the dozen categories for the DevOps Dozen this year? That you can get on the site itself, but here they are as well:

1. Best DevOps Solution Provider

This category recognizes the best consultant/solutions provider in DevOps—those helping companies in their DevOps journeys.

2. Best DevOps Practitioner of the Year (New)

DevOps is a team effort and team success depends on the work of every member. However, there always are few who go above and beyond  the call of duty. Their passion, energy and enthusiasm is contagious. This category recognizes these real humans of DevOps.

3. Best DevOps Solution Provider Executive

We want to recognize the top executive at a DevOps tools or solution provider—not an executive leading a DevOps transformation within a company. Nominees can be any C-level executive, GM or SVP.

4. Best DevOps.com Podcast of the Year (New)

Which was your favorite DevOps Chat we’ve done this year? Check out our 2019 DevOps Chats on a multitude of topics ranging from CI/CD and testing to DevSecOps, Kubernetes, containers and more. Let us know which one you liked best.

5. Best DevOps Book / eBook

There are so many great DevOps books and eBooks that have been published in addition to “The Phoenix Project.” This category highlights that are the most popular and make a great read.

6. Top DevOps Evangelist

This category is one of our favorites. We are blessed in DevOps to have so many great evangelists who travel the world spreading the DevOps gospel. Nominees can work for a company in the space or not. This should be a really competitive category.

7. Best DevOps Transformation

This category recognizes organizations that are setting the bar in transforming their business through DevOps.

8. Best DevOps Transformation Leader

We want to acknowledge the key leaders driving the charge within organizations that have had the most success with their DevOps transformations.

9. Best New DevOps Solutions Company

This category seeks to recognize newer companies that have made an impact in the DevOps space and we believe will be tomorrow’s leaders. Nominees must be in the DevOps market less than 24 months.

10. Best DevOps Conference of the Year (New)

There’s an abundance of IT conferences throughout the year, and more are including a DevOps track or even focusing exclusively on DevOps. What tops your list of DevOps events?

11. Best DevOps Presentation of the Year

This category recognizes the best DevOps-themed presentation of the past year from any of the myriad conferences.

12. Best DevOps.com Article of the Year

DevOps.com publishes multiple new articles every day. Which was the best one? Let us know so we can recognize the author.

Thank you again for your enthusiastic response to last year’s awards. The full list of 2018 finalists and winners are available to view here.

Also, the product/technology-specific DevOps Dozen awards now will be part of our DevOps Tools Guide and Awards. This new initiative is our effort to create a comprehensive listing of tools and tools vendors to help end users better understand the DevOps market landscape, and to enable DevOps.com to recognize the top vendors in each category through its annual DevOps Tools Awards. To be included in this year’s guide, please complete the survey.

There are so many great companies and people involved in DevOps that it’s always difficult to pick the winners. We know some worthy choices will not be voted tops in their category; however, acknowledging them in our awards process helps show how important they are in the DevOps space.

As stated earlier, the top four to six nominees in each category will be designated as finalists, who then can submit a presentation on why they deserve the award to [email protected]. Finalists will be announced the second week of November and the winners, who will be chosen by our panel of judges, will be announced in December.

If you have questions, send them to [email protected]. Voting for finalist nominees is open for three weeks, so don’t waste any time—nominate your favorites today. Good luck to everyone vying to be one of the DevOps Dozen 2019!

— Alan Shimel