Hurry, hurry, hurry! Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and read the 2013 SD Times 100: The top leaders and innovators in the industry! We have big companies, small companies, not-for-profit organizations, open-source for-profits—they’re all here, wearing the traditional Blue Ribbon and paraded out on our midway.
Since 2003, the editors of SD Times have examined the newsmakers of the previous year, looked back at their achievements and decided who were the best of the best. We carefully considered each organization’s offerings and reputation. We also listened for the “buzz”—how much attention and conversation we’ve heard around the company and its products and technologies—as a sign of leadership.
Judging the SD Times 100 isn’t like picking the best apple pie at the state fair, or choosing a winning bull or hog. The editors spend months considering each nomination in a process that involves debating, researching, debating, researching… rinse and repeat.
The most difficult part is cutting. It would be easier, perhaps, to choose the SD Times 200. Or even the SD Times 117. However, just like those pie tasters, the editors are up for the challenge of selecting the right number of Blue Ribbon organizations.
At the state fair, the pies are divided up by flavor: apple, peach, pumpkin, rhubarb. Tempting though that delicious methodology may be, the SD Times 100 requires its own taxonomy:
- ALM & Development Tools
- APIs, Libraries & Frameworks
- Big Data & Business Intelligence
- The Cloud
- Database & Database Management
- DevOps & SCM
- Influencers
- Mobile
- Quality Assurance & Security
- User Experience
You may notice a new category: Big Data. It’s not only so big that we called it out as a key trend in its own right, but we have also assigned many of the SD Times 100 leaders into this classification.What do you think about the 2013 SD Times 100? Did we include an organization that you consider unworthy? Did we miss a top leader or innovator? Join and follow the Twitter conversation with #sdtimes100.
