The Judging Process

The are four stages to the judging process across each of our awards programs:

Stage 1: Initial assessment of your submission

Stage 2: Release of the shortlist for each category

Stage 3: Confirmation of the finalists in each category

Stage 4: Selection of the winner in each category

Assessment Criteria

Judging is primarily based on the quality of your awards submission. Refer to the category page for tips on the types of information the judges will be looking for in the category/categories you are entering.

Your awards application. This is the most important metric in our assessment of your submission. Entrants are encouraged to write to the word count given for each question, to ensure enough evidence is given for consideration.
Supplementary materials (optional). You may share additional supporting material when you upload your submission form. These could include presentations, reports, ‘how-to’ guides. If you exercise restraint in the number of additional materials provided, they are more likely to be reviewed.
Testimonials and case studies (optional). These can be included within the submission form, or provided as supplementary materials. These can be a deciding factor – having confirmation of your excellence and innovation from your customers can be very persuasive.
Third-party or supplementary metrics (optional). Judges may include net promoter scores or other online reviews in some category assessments at their discretion.
Links to videos (optional). These might be of your product in action, tutorials, case studies or product feature highlights. These are particularly important in UX/UI categories.

All awards submission content is treated in the strictest commercial confidence by the awards team and judging panel.

FAQs & How to Enter

Rules & Costs

Lead Judges

All five awards programs – The Cloud Awards, The SaaS Awards, The Cloud Security Awards, The A.I. Awards, and The FinTech Awards – each aim to take a holistic approach in awards assessment, both geographically and in the measurement of success. These judges head up an ever-growing global team who assist the judging process. They represent a mix of technical, business, academic and marketing expertise.

Annabelle Whittall

Systems Engineer

Annabelle Whittall

Annabelle Whittall is an experienced Systems Engineer who has worked for over a decade in research and development alongside companies such as Rolls Royce, Boeing, QinetiQ, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin. Career highlights include developing a state-of-the-art satellite navigation capability program, and most recently, working on a cloud-based solution in single end-to-end geospatial capability and AI. Annabelle is an active STEM ambassador, a member of the Women’s Engineering Society and holds a degree in Mathematics and Statistical Science from the University College London. She is passionate about what the cloud can do for environmental sustainability.

Maneet Bansal

Distributed Systems Expert

Maneet Bansal

Maneet Bansal is a professional with over 12 years of industry experience and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Cornell University. He is widely recognized for expertise in distributed systems with companies such as Meta, Amazon, and Adobe. Mr. Bansal has worked on projects from computer security to IoT and AI systems. He has designed, developed, and managed highly reliable systems that serve millions of transactions per second and work with petabytes of data. Currently, he works as a tech lead at Meta, providing in-house cloud services for a variety of use cases such as ML, video processing, and hardware provisioning.

Graham Beale

UX / UI Expert

Graham Beale

Graham has specialized in User Experience Design since before the turn of the millennium, at organizations including BBC, Yahoo!, Symantec, Daily Telegraph, Vodafone and Yell. He’s provided consultancy to start-ups and also built and led teams in enterprise organizations. Graham specializes in outcome-driven methodologies such as Lean UX. He currently teaches UX/UI Design to international students at Flatiron School.

Christopher Southall

BI & Analytics Expert

Christopher Southall

Christopher Southall is a Computer Science & Business Management graduate with 15 years’ experience across both business and government sectors. His current role is Global Business Intelligence and Analytics Lead for SNC Lavalin Group Inc, where he manages a global team designing and delivering cloud-based business intelligence and analytics solutions across Finance, HR, Reward, Talent, L&D, ERP and other corporate functions.

Nitin Gupta

AI / ML Expert

Nitin Gupta

Nitin is an engineering leader with over 14 years of experience in the tech industry. For the past 8 years, he has been working at Meta (previously Facebook), leading the development of cutting-edge software in the AI & ML domain. His focus has been on creating reliable and scalable software that can help the company stay ahead of the curve. Prior to joining Meta, he worked at two leading technology companies, Amazon and Adobe. His experience at both AWS and Adobe, combined with his time at Facebook, has given him a broad perspective on the tech industry and has enabled him to not only address complex engineering challenges but also to drive innovation and stay ahead of the curve in a constantly evolving tech industry.

Jebastin Packiaraj Ponnudurai

Cybersecurity Expert

Jebastin Packiaraj Ponnudurai

Jebastin is a Senior Technical Consultant with more than 15 years of experience in Identity and Access Management in the cybersecurity industry. He is a subject matter expert in providing IAM solutions that align with industry-specific security needs and regulatory requirements. Jebastin holds a Master of Technology degree in Data Science and Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in India.

Raghuram Pendyala

Enterprise Platform Specialist

Raghuram Pendyala

Raghuram Pendyala is an accomplished Principal Software Engineering Manager working at Microsoft. With over 15 years of experience in the field, he has deep expertise in building and delivering large-scale, highly reliable, and innovative enterprise platforms in the cloud. Raghuram has a proven track record of delivering innovative SaaS solutions that cater to a variety of industries. Raghuram has a master degree in Computer Applications from National Institute of Technology, India.

Christopher Bennett

Marketing Specialist

Christopher Bennett

Chris Bennett is an experienced market researcher and consultant who has spent over a decade helping brands including Nissan and Estée Lauder to understand the messaging, segmentation, and products consumers need most. He specializes in social analytics data and the importance of personality traits, emotions and consumer behaviors. Chris is an Associate Director at Material, a global strategy, insights, design, and technology firm based in Los Angeles. Chris has a Masters degree in Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods from The University of Chicago.

Jason Ford

Cybersecurity Expert

Jason Ford

Jason currently works as a Cyber Security and Networking trainer covering accredited courses from CompTIA, Cisco and the EC Council as well as bespoke consultancy. He has worn a wide variety of hats through his career from Web Design and Account Management through to the course development and delivery that comprise his current role. As a Certified Ethical Hacker and Cyber Security Analyst Jason appreciates all aspects of Security and is passionate about Cloud Services that can simplify or provide scaling for historically limited technologies like Firewalls and IAM.

Stephen Backhouse

Finance Expert

Stephen Backhouse

Stephen is a chartered accountant and tax adviser with experience in both practice and industry, and currently works as a financial controller for a wine importer and wholesaler. He has also been a trustee of a charity in the education sector for several years. Stephen is particularly interested in seeing how technology can help serve smaller enterprises and the charitable sector effectively, as these entities can be at risk of being left behind when more expensive solutions are out of reach.

Shiva Kumar

Enterprise BI Specialist

Shiva Kumar

Shiva Kumar is an accomplished IT professional with over 11 years of experience, including 9+ years in the USA, specializing in SQL Server, Business Intelligence (BI), Data Warehousing, and Integration tools. He has proven expertise in developing and deploying enterprise-level solutions across Technology, Finance, Airlines, Mortgage, and Healthcare domains. He is recognized for exceptional problem-solving skills, a strong technical background, and adaptability to diverse environments. Shiva is also a published author with multiple research contributions.

Judging Panel

Our Lead Judges are complemented by a roster of additional judges that form our judging panel. The panel consists of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, educations, and expertise, making them well-placed to review submissions into The Cloud Awards, SaaS Awards, Cloud Security Awards, A.I. Awards, and FinTech Awards. You can find out more about a selection of these judges below.