We don't like to brag—unless it's about our customers

How does the Red Hat Innovation Awards nomination and selection process work?

From July to September, customers can nominate themselves for an award, or they can be nominated by others.

Our panel of industry-expert judges will review and score the nominations (an average of 60 per year, based on past data), narrowing them down to the top 5 winning projects and 5 honorable mentions that meet our Innovation Awards criteria for outstanding work. The winners and honorable mentions will be publicly announced and showcased starting on the first day of Red Hat Summit 2020.

From the 5 winners, the 2020 Red Hat Innovator of the Year will be selected by the community through online voting. The winner will be announced during Red Hat Summit 2020, held April 28-29.

Read the 2020 Red Hat Innovation Awards terms and conditions for complete details.

Note: Not all countries are eligible. To find out if your country is eligible, go to section 2 of the terms and conditions. English submissions only.

What makes an Innovation Awards winner?

Red Hat Innovation Awards submissions will be judged against 5 criteria, listed below. Judges will score each submission, and those that receive the highest scores across all criteria will be the 5 winners and 5 honorable mentions.

• Business impact: How is your project directly benefiting your organization? Is it impacting another line of business or return on investment (ROI)? Do data points show increased productivity, cost, or time savings? Share details about the project’s measurable impact.


• Digital transformation: Has your organization gone through a migration, optimized your existing IT, integrated apps or business processes, or quickly built more modern apps? Has it moved to the cloud (public, private, or hybrid), and are you using AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google? Clearly articulate why you needed to transform, share details of your journey, and illustrate where your organization is now by showing us the before and after.


• Openness: Is your project leading innovation by building an open source culture, contributing to community projects, fostering DevOps, or promoting diversity, collaboration, and meritocracy? Is the project using open source technology to support a broad range of applications and business services? Tell us about it.


• Community impact or influence: How is your IT making a difference in the lives of others? Are you improving the daily experiences of your customers, end-users, or employees? Are you influencing an organization or agency to impact communities or your society?


• Cool factor: Does your project have a uniqueness and distinct vision showing innovation, creativity, and originality that we haven’t seen or heard of before?

What's in it for you?

Red Hat Innovation Awards winners will receive:

• Opportunity to participate in activities during Red Hat Summit.
• Inclusion in the Red Hat Innovation Awards winner announcement.
• Promotion through Red Hat’s website, social media channels, and marketing campaigns.
• Publicity in top industry publications.

Dates to remember

August 1, 2019: Nominations open

September 13, 2019: Last day for submissions

October 2019: 2020 winners and honorable mentions notified

April 28-29, 2020: Red Hat Innovation Awards winners, honorable mentions, and Red Hat Innovator of the Year recognized during Red Hat Summit.

2020 Red Hat Innovation Awards judges

Ashesh Badani, Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Platforms, Red Hat

Matthew Burbidge, Deputy Editor, ITWeb

Marco Bill-Peter, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience and Engagement, Red Hat

Stefanie Chiras, Vice President and General Manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux business unit, Red Hat

Leigh Day, Vice President, Marketing Communications, Red Hat

KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, Industry Analyst, RedMonk

Dr. Edmund Jackson, Chief Data Scientist, HCA Healthcare

Sean Michael Kerner, Freelance Journalist

Chris Wright, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Red Hat