The DevOps Dozen² Awards are back and open for nominations. This past year has been quite a journey and we are very proud of the DevOps community in their ability to pivot, innovate, adapt and think ahead in these challenging times. Some outstanding leaders and vendors have worked nonstop to reach their goals and achieve the highest level of success. We are thrilled to celebrate their hard work and achievements.

The DevOps Dozen² Awards honor the most dedicated and inspiring thought leaders and innovators who have made significant contributions to the community. For the second year, we have expanded our awards program to include two different DevOps Dozen sections: DevOps Dozen Tools and Services Awards and the DevOps Dozen Community Awards.

There are 12 awards for each section:

• DevOps Dozen Tools and Services Awards — Recognizing the companies that develop and deliver outstanding solutions to empower developers, DevOps and IT operations teams.
• DevOps Dozen Community Awards — Honoring the leaders who have made a positive impact in the DevOps community.

Nominations are made by the audience. Anyone can nominate a tool or service, although there is a $250 entry fee for the Tools and Services Awards nominations. We implemented this fee last year to cut down on spam and superfluous nominations. However, there is no fee for Community Awards nominations. Please note that commercial tools and services are not eligible for the Community Awards and will not make it through to the finals.

Finalists will be selected and winners will be chosen from among the finalists. The finalists will be determined by general public voting (weighted for 40% of the final total) and our judges’ selections (weighted for 60% of the final total).

The last day to submit your nominations is October 22. To vote, follow the steps outlined on the DevOps Dozen² website.

Who Are the DevOps Dozen² Judges?

The following DevOps experts make up the DevOps Dozen² Awards 2021 panel of judges, and will review the submissions made by the public and choose the winners:

• Alan Shimel, founder, CEO and editor-in-chief at MediaOps
• Jayne Groll, co-founder and CEO at the DevOps Institute
• Mitch Ashley, founder and CEO at Accelerated Strategies Group
• John Willis, senior director of the Global Transformation Office at Red Hat
• Helen Beal, chief ambassador at DevOps Institute and ambassador at Continuous Delivery Foundation

The 2021 DevOps Dozen² Categories

DevOps Dozen Tools and Services Awards

• Best End-to-End DevOps Tool/Service

Consolidation in the DevOps space has led to a greater selection of platforms offering end-to-end solutions. This award honors the platform with the most diverse and robust solution for DevOps teams.

• Best DevOps Repo/GitOps Tool/Service

Git has led to GitOps and it has become an integral part of the DevOps toolbox. This award is presented to the most outstanding Repo/Git/GitOps tool.

• Best CI/CD Tool

This award recognizes the best CI/CD tool that helps teams to deliver quality code better.

• Best Value Stream Management Tool

Value stream management has come into its own as an important tool for measuring the business value of DevOps and application development. This award recognizes the value stream management tool that most effectively helps visualize the value stream, track metrics and measure improvement.

• Best Observability Solution

This award recognizes the best observability solution for observing and monitoring to understand the performance of individual components and systems and entire applications.

• Best DevSecOps Solution

This award honors the best DevSecOps solution, which enables security to be included earlier and continuously throughout the SDLC.

• Best Testing Service/Tool

Testing is a mainstay in the DevOps toolchain. This award recognizes the best testing tool for ensuring the quality of code.

• Best Kubernetes Platform/Service

The adoption of containers has paved the way for an entire solutions ecosystem supporting and enhancing the container technology. Kubernetes is perhaps the most widely recognized and utilized tool in the space. There are many platforms and services that offer Kubernetes-based solutions. This award honors the best Kubernetes platform/service available.

• Best Cloud-Native Security Solution/Service

The cloud-native movement has taken the IT world by storm due to the depth and breadth of the solutions available and the benefits of building applications and services specifically for cloud-native environments. This award recognizes the best tools, solutions and services considered cloud-native.

• Best DevOps for Mainframe Solution
  Mainframes are far from being the dinosaur of the IT world, and a variety of solutions are available for enabling DevOps practices in mainframe environments and hybrid environments. This award recognizes the best of them.
  

• Best DevOps for DataOps/Database Solution
  Databases often have been left out of the DevOps conversation, but that is changing. The whole concept of DataOps is gaining greater traction. This award recognizes the best solution in the database for DevOps and DataOps categories.
  

• Best New DevOps Tool/Service Provider
  This award recognizes the best new service provider or tool that has brought innovation to the DevOps space in the past year (must be less than 24 months old).

DevOps Dozen Community Awards

• Best DevOps Industry Implementation
  This award honors organizations that have successfully adopted and implemented DevOps principles and practices.
  

• Best DevOps Survey/Analysis/Research
  This award recognizes research that has significantly and positively impacted the DevOps community.
  

• Best DevOps-Related Video Series (video)
  This category highlights the most entertaining, educational and inspirational DevOps video series—those with the most engaging and highest-quality content.
  

• Best DevOps-Related Audio Podcast Series
  Which is your favorite DevOps podcast from this year? This category celebrates the many great DevOps podcasts sparking some interesting discussions on a multitude of topics from CI/CD and testing to DevSecOps, Kubernetes, containers and more.
  

• Best DevOps Book/eBook of the Year
  Each year sees a plethora of well-crafted DevOps-related books and ebooks. This category highlights the most popular and best read of the year.
  

• Top DevOps Evangelist
  This category is one of our favorites. There are so many great evangelists who spread the DevOps gospel and we want to know who does it best. Nominees can work within the DevOps space or outside of it.
  

• Best DevOps Transformation (non-vendor)
  In a year in which digital transformation became a must-have for survival, we want to know which organizations stood out in their efforts to transform their business through DevOps.
  

• Best DevOps Virtual Event of the Year
  COVID-19 has changed the game when it comes to hosting events. In 2021, virtual events remain the norm, reaching a global audience while everyone stays safe at home. Which DevOps virtual event stands out from the others?
  

• Most Innovative DevOps Open Source Project
  Open source projects are meant to promote innovation and increase efficiency, velocity and quality. While there are many great open source projects out there, the best ones are those that create a community of people who work on and with the technology and support each other.
  

• DevOps Executive of the Year (non-vendor) This category celebrates excellence among DevOps leaders at the C-suite (or equivalent) levels.
  

• Best DevOps Presentation of the Year
  This category recognizes the best DevOps-themed presentation from the many (virtual) conferences during the year.
  

• Best DevOps.com Article of the Year
  DevOps.com publishes multiple new articles every day. Which was the best article from 2021? Let us know so we can recognize the author.

All the solutions nominated to the Tools and Services Awards will automatically be registered into the DevOps Tools Guide authored by MediaOps and Accelerated Strategies Group. This initiative is our effort to create a comprehensive listing of tools and tools vendors to help end users better understand the DevOps market landscape.

Choosing a winner is difficult when there are so many talented and inspiring leaders doing an incredible job to empower and support our community. Although not everyone can win an award, being nominated says a lot about each and every one of you. We greatly appreciate your dedication and service to the DevOps community.

For more information, please visit the DevOps Dozen² website. If you have any questions regarding entry process, awards, timing or any technical issues regarding the website, please contact us at DD@devops.com.

Alan Shimel

CEO, MediaOps