At Joyent we believe there is a natural affinity between microservices architectures, Node.js and containers. We run Node.js and containers ourselves at large scale, and we optimized our public cloud and private cloud, containers-as-a-service solution, Triton, to be what we think is the best place to run “Dockerized,” Node.js applications.

Our experience with, and commitment to, both Node.js and containers began nearly a decade ago when we took the architectural decisions to both (1) make containers the foundation of our cloud computing service, and (2) re-architect that same, then a monolithic application, into a microservices - styled application written largely in Node.js.

Over the last decade we’ve invested countless hours and millions of dollars to help advance the cause of Node.js and containers. Included among our efforts has been our ongoing support for the Node.js and Docker Innovator Program. Innovation is not born on an island. It is present all around the world. We need to nurture and encourage it to come together as a community and be impactful in a real sense.

Now, after reviewing hundreds of applications from talented tech innovators, we’re pleased to announce the 2nd annual Node.js and Docker Innovator Program finalists. Follow along during coming year as we highlight these tech innovators, learn why they selected Node.js and Docker, and share their production best practices and user stories. One of these finalists will also be honoured with the Innovator of the Year award. Congratulations to each of this year’s finalists!

2016 Innovator Program Finalists

Alaska Airlines: Alaska Airlines is the seventh-largest U.S. airline based on passenger traffic and is one of the most popular U.S. West Coast air carriers. Headquartered in Seattle, Alaska carries more passengers between the state of Alaska and the Lower 48 than any other airline. The airline has expanded significantly to serve several U.S. East Coast and Southern cities including Nashville, Charleston and Raleigh/Durham and began flying to Costa Rica last year.

Long known for its Alaskan roots, symbolized by the Eskimo painted on the tail of the aircraft, Alaska Airlines offers a friendly and relaxed style of service, one that passengers have come to appreciate as the "Alaska Spirit." The airline also is known for embracing innovative technology to improve the customer experience.

Finning International: Finning is the world's largest Caterpillar dealer delivering unrivalled service for over 80 years. The Company sells, rents and provides parts and service for equipment and engines to customers in various industries, including mining, construction, petroleum, forestry and a wide range of power systems applications.

With our broad product support infrastructure and unmatched service capabilities, we deliver solutions that enable customers to achieve the lowest equipment owning and operating costs while maximizing uptime. Finning employs about 13,000 people worldwide and operates in three geographies, with the head office in Vancouver, Canada.

VidRoll: VidRoll offers a full-stack private exchange that allows publishers and advertisers to connect in a decentralized way. VidRoll efficiently monetizes the explosive growth of new media channels across desktop, mobile and connected TV by offering an ad-supported model that empowers the relationship between advertisers and their target audience.

We process massive amounts of real-time data that is used by advertisers to make decisions that improve yield and allows content publishers to realize the monetary value of their users. The operational efficiencies of our business model enable us to stay nimble at scale, which is critical in staying ahead of the ever-evolving online advertising industry. As an exponential organization, we deliver optimal performance that continues to fuel the growth our partners.

Algorithmia: Algorithmia is a live, crowd-sourced algorithm marketplace. Its goal is to make applications smarter by building a community around algorithm development, where state-of-the-art algorithms are accessible to anyone. Algorithm authors can write an algorithm in any supported language and make it discoverable and accessible to the global community of application developers via a simple REST API.

Application developers can access this API through clients for Java, Scala, Python, JavaScript, Node.js, R, Ruby, Rust, or via HTTP. Today, Algorithmia is the world’s largest algorithm marketplace, containing more than 2,500 algorithms and attracting over 30,000 developers.

Carlabs: CarLabs offers a B2B solution that improves the car shopping experience for users of messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger or SMS. CarLabs’ conversational agent, Carla, is ready 24/7 to answer questions like: “Can I get a safe, reliable, fun SUV with 7 seats under $45k?”

Carla is a natural language-enabled, cognitive, AI-powered virtual agent. Her users think of her as ‘Siri for Cars’ (only smarter) or simply as ‘their friend who knows cars.’ She delivers expert, unbiased car advice via voice, text or mixed media. Carla replaces a profusion of digital touch points with a single, trusted point of contact. Beyond finding the right car, Carla is present throughout the life of a vehicle including finance, insurance, service and repair. Carla connects and empowers all the stakeholders in the car shopping and ownership lifecycle. She offers a fresh, personal and engaging product suite for new car dealers. Publishers can benefit from a plug-in car comparison tool. And for car portals, Carla dramatically improves the car research/lead generating experience. Carla can also help link the auto OEM with consumers via the dealership, and power existing AI products, like Amazon’s Alexa, making them smarter about cars.

ActionSprout: ActionSprout offers tools for nonprofit organizations to tap the power of their supporters on Facebook through list building, fundraising, advocacy and content discovery.

Synchro Labs: Synchro Labs provides an enterprise-focused mobile app development platform that allows developers to create feature-rich, robust, and secure cross-platform mobile apps that look and feel native on mobile devices, but actually run on the server, and are updatable in real-time. Synchro does this in a fraction of the code required by competing solutions. Mobile apps created for the Synchro platform are written in JavaScript and run in a Node.js environment on the server (either in the cloud or on-prem). Client platforms supported include: Android, iOS, Windows, Windows Phone, and web (mobile-optimized and desktop) – all driven by the same app code.Synchro Server solutions are easy to package and deploy as managed services or in containers. Docker support is included out of the box, and there is optional built-in orchestration support (using ContainerPilot) that makes it easy to update and scale no matter how or where you deploy, or which orchestration solution you use.

Genomicos: Genomicos’ SaaS solutions improve genome assembly speed, distribution and control. Aimed at scientists and genome sequencing centres, the Genomicos Assembler auto-selects the optimal algorithm and in-house technology performs clinical-grade genome assembly at one-tenth of the cost of competitors in one-fiftieth of the time. We remove genome assembly as the bottleneck in the process of population scale genomics, thus opening up opportunities for high-quality genome assembly for everyone. As the number of genomes being sequenced approaches one million per year and is certain to continue increasing we are also developing a global network for scientists and the public to store and share genomes using advancements in speed and privacy. We call this the Genomicos Distribution Network, or GDN. Unlike current services which offer cheap genome storage, the GDN allows everyone to completely own their genomic data, to decide who is allowed to access their genome and when.

Snyk: Snyk helps developers mitigate the risk of known vulnerabilities in open source packages, like npm, without losing productivity. Snyk offers developer friendly security tools to easily find vulnerable packages you're using and fix them with a click. Once vuln free, Snyk helps you stay that way by preventing the addition of new vulnerabilities and quickly and efficiently responding to new vulnerable packages.

Paper & Equator: Paper & Equator is a leading designer of the digital ecosystem. We streamline and connect digital tools and services so they work in perfect unison. Both public and private companies, many even in the fortune 500, have been leveraging our design methods and award-winning technology to implement their own digital ecosystem. Centered in the heart of New York City, we specialize in new visions for commerce, healthcare, learning and the cities of tomorrow.

Traxxs: TRAXxs is a fabless startup developing wearable technology for shoes, building hardware products and software platforms. Its solutions combines geolocation, telecommunication and activity monitoring with comfort insoles offering the opportunity to transform any type of shoe into a real-time GPS tracking solution, working without any additional device.TRAXxs’ XSole is a smart insole embedding sensors, geolocation and telecommunication chips. Exclusive architecture based on movement detection and innovative passive antennas optimize power consumption.These brand-new patented products are low cost and robust integrated devices. The offer is completed by a set of value-added services, allowing subscribers to monitor in real time the location of the equipped shoe holders through secured applications and APIs developed with proven technologies.

Quizzly: Quizzly is an online, free application for creating interactive tests, games, and tools. Its goal is to make learning and memorizing more fun and effective for both academic (e.g. learning a new language) and non-academic topics.

Join us in congratulating our Node and Docker Innovator Program finalists!