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

From August to September, customers can nominate themselves for an award, or they can be nominated by others. To request your nomination form, email the Red Hat Customer Reference team: customer-references@redhat.com

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 during Red Hat Summit 2021.

From the 5 winners, the 2021 Red Hat Innovator of the Year will be selected by the community through online voting. The winner will be announced during Red Hat Summit 2021.

Read the 2021 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.

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? In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are especially interested in projects that helped organizations adapt to new ways of working or provided new services to customers during this challenging time. 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?

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.
• Opportunity to be included in other Red Hat Innovators in the Open activities throughout the year.

August 3, 2020: Nominations open

September 13, 2020: Last day for submissions

October 2020: 2021 winners and honorable mentions notified

April 2021: Voting for Innovator of the Year begins

April 2021: Red Hat Innovation Awards winners, honorable mentions, and Red Hat Innovator of the Year recognized at Red Hat Summit

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

Caroline Chappell, Research Director and Industry Analyst, Analysys Mason

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

Leigh Day, Vice President, Marketing Communications, Red Hat

Sean Michael Kerner, Freelance Journalist

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

Alberto Iglesias Fraga, Deputy director, INNOVADORES Supplement, La Razon