Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that it is accepting nominations for the 2019 Red Hat Innovation Awards.

Since 2007, the Red Hat Innovation Awards have recognized organizations from around the world and across industries for the transformative projects and outstanding results they have experienced with Red Hat's open source solutions. Open source has helped transform technology from the datacenter to the cloud and the Red Hat Innovation Awards showcase its transformative impact in organizations around the world.

Nominations should showcase successful open source IT implementation and projects that made a difference in organizations using open source. Entries for the Innovation Awards will be judged in five areas:

Impact: Assessing the impact the project had on the organization and various lines of business, including the return on investment benefits such as increased agility, automation, scalability, productivity, and cost and time-savings.

Assessing the impact the project had on the organization and various lines of business, including the return on investment benefits such as increased agility, automation, scalability, productivity, and cost and time-savings. Transformation: Analyzing the organization’s IT transformation and modernization as a result of the project.

Analyzing the organization’s IT transformation and modernization as a result of the project. Open source: Evaluating how the organization is embracing an agile mode of IT, using open source technology, methodology, open source values and initiatives to create a culture that supports collaboration, diversity, and meritocracy.

Evaluating how the organization is embracing an agile mode of IT, using open source technology, methodology, open source values and initiatives to create a culture that supports collaboration, diversity, and meritocracy. Difference: Measuring how the organization’s change and transformation has made a difference in the lives of the users, communities, and even the society it supports.

Measuring how the organization’s change and transformation has made a difference in the lives of the users, communities, and even the society it supports. Uniqueness: Judging the uniqueness and distinct vision for the project showing innovation and originality that hasn’t been seen or heard of before.

Submissions will be accepted until Nov. 7, 2018, and will be evaluated by a panel of business and open source technology experts including Ashesh Badani, vice president and general manager, Cloud Platforms; Marco Bill-Peter, senior vice president, Customer Experience and Engagement; Nick Costides, vice president, Information Technology, UPS; Leigh Day vice president, Marketing Communications; Sean Michael Kerner, senior editor, eWeek; Craig Muzilla, senior vice president, Core Products and Cloud Services Business; Al Sadowski, research vice president, 451 Research; Dale Walker, acting deputy & features editor, IT Pro, Cloud Pro, Channel Pro; and Chris Wright, vice president and chief technology office.

A total of five winners will be chosen. From those five winners, the 2019 Red Hat Innovator of the Year will be selected by the community through online voting, and will be announced during an awards ceremony at the 2019 Red Hat Summit in Boston, May 7-9, 2019. In addition, up to five honorable mention submissions may be recognized by the judges.