End User Awards
The best practitioners in open source. Every year the CNCF recognizes the organizations that don't just adopt cloud native technologies — they push them to their limits in production, share what they learn, and give their work back to the community. The Top End User Award honors the end user organization making the most significant contributions to the cloud native ecosystem.
These are the companies whose clusters, pipelines, and platforms prove what cloud native can do at scale.
Winner history audited for completeness against contribute.cncf.io/community/awards on August 8, 2026. Top End User Award Modernized its infrastructure by migrating 70% of 2,000 applications to the cloud, using Kubernetes as a consistent control plane across 200+ clusters. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, Amsterdam Top End User Award Recognized for significantly advancing cloud native development internally and across the wider CNCF community. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America, Atlanta Top End User Award Recognized for pioneering cloud native scalability and shaping the future of open source services. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, London Top End User Award Contributed to 46 CNCF projects and shared a reference architecture for its Internal Developer Platform. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America, Salt Lake City Top End User Award The research leader recognized as an exceptional end user of cloud native technologies in scientific computing. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, Paris Top End User Award Recognized for the second time for significant contributions to and involvement in the cloud native community. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America, Chicago Top End User Award Runs nearly 1,000 Kubernetes clusters in production designing technology for the automotive giant. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, Amsterdam Top End User Award A CNCF member since early 2018 and a generous contributor and supporter of the cloud native ecosystem. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America, Detroit Top End User Award Recognized for its adoption of cloud native technologies and contributions back to the ecosystem. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, Valencia Top End User Award The world's most popular audio streaming service, recognized for its numerous contributions to the cloud native community. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, Virtual Top End User Award The German e-commerce company recognized for significant contributions to and involvement in the cloud native community. Announced virtually Top End User Award The leading transportation platform recognized for contributions to open source big data and AI technologies. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon + Open Source Summit China, Shanghai Top End User Award The financial technology company recognized for contributions to the cloud native community. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, Barcelona Top End User Award The Chinese online retail giant recognized for contributions to the cloud native end user community. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon China, Shanghai Top End User Award The financial software leader recognized for contributions to the cloud native ecosystem. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, Copenhagen
SNCF
Michelin
ANT Group
Adobe
CERN
Spotify
Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation
Intuit
Apple
Spotify
Zalando
DiDi
Intuit
JD.com
Bloomberg
Nominate an organization
Any end user organization can be nominated for the Top End User Award, though winners cannot repeat in consecutive years. Nominations open ahead of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon — watch the CNCF End User Community page and community channels for the call for nominations.
Looking for the individual community awards (Top Committer, Top Documentarian, Chop Wood Carry Water, and friends)? Those live with the contributor community at contribute.cncf.io.