We are very proud to announce the winners of the DevOps Dozen² Awards for 2021. For the past seven years, the DevOps Dozen² Awards have recognized the stars of the DevOps community. Over the years, we have expanded the scope of the awards to honor a dozen DevOps tools and services as well as a dozen of the DevOps community’s best and brightest.

Every year it gets harder to pick just one winner in each category. There are so many worthy contenders that even whittling down each category to six or seven finalists is difficult.

Step 1 of 7

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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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Once the finalists are selected in each category, things become even more challenging. My fellow judges (Mitchell Ashley, Jayne Groll, Helen Beal and John Willis) and I try to look at the popular vote and use that to guide us. But we are also very familiar with the space and try to make these awards more than just a popularity contest.

I know that might sound like a cliche, but it really is true—every one of the finalists in this year’s DevOps Dozen² Awards would have been a worthy recipient of the award in their category. Congratulations to all of them. You can see the complete list of finalists here.

However, as they said in the movie Highlander, “There can be only one.” Without further ado, I am pleased to announce the 2021 DevOps Dozen² Awards honorees:

DevOps Dozen Community Awards

Best DevOps Industry Implementation

City of Gainesville/Gainesville Regional Utilities

Best DevOps Survey/Analysis/Research

2021 State of DevOps Report

Best DevOps Related Video Series (Video)

DevOps Series (DevOps for IBM Z Media Center)

Best DevOps Related Podcast of the Year (Audio Only)

The POPcast, hosted by Dan “Pop” Papandrea

Best DevOps Books / eBook of the Year

A Beginner’s Guide to Observability by Splunk

Top DevOps Evangelist

Abel Wang

Best DevOps Transformation (Non-Vendor)

FedEx

Best DevOps Virtual Event of the Year

DevOps World 2021

Most Innovative DevOps Open Source Project

Prometheus

DevOps Executive of the Year

Shlomi Ben Haim, JFrog

Best DevOps Presentation of the Year

The Value of DevOps Transformation in the Digital Enterprise by Rosalind Radcliffe (IBM) and Mark Howell (Lloyds Banking Group)

Best DevOps.com Article of the Year

Measuring Value Streams by Analyzing Flow Metrics by Jeff Keyes

DevOps Dozen Tools and Services Awards

Best End to End DevOps Tool/Service

GitLab 14

Best DevOps Repo/GitOps Tool/Service

Red Hat OpenShift GitOps

Best CI/CD Tool

CircleCI

Best Value Stream Management Tool

CloudBees Platform

Best Observability Solution

Honeycomb

Best DevSecOps Solution

JFrog XRay

Best Testing Service/Tool

Applitools

Best Kubernetes Platform/Service

SUSE Rancher 2.6

Best Cloud Native Security Solution/Service

Traceable AI

Best DevOps for Mainframe Solution

Zowe

Best DevOps for DataOps/Database Solution

The BMC AMI SQL Performance for Db2® Solution

Best New DevOps Tool/Service Provider

Nobl9

Winners will receive both digital and physical trophies and badges celebrating their achievements.

Many thanks to our panel of judges for making the hard calls and thank you to everyone who nominated candidates and cast votes. Thank you for supporting DevOps.com and the DevOps community.

For more information, please visit the 2021 DevOps Dozen² Awards website and stay tuned for the 2022 DevOps Dozen Awards which will begin nominations in late August 2022.