Picking these five outstanding companies from our many entries was no easy task. In addition to Brian Cameron, of the Center for Enterprise Architecture, and Alex Cullen, the enterprise architecture research director at Forrester Research, I'd like to thank the following judges:
Eric Meredith, vice president of enterprise architecture governance for PNC Bank
Trekker Armstrong, director of planning and enterprise architecture for TransCanada Pipeline
David Prior, head of the Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence at GlaxoSmithKine
Con Kenney, senior research fellow at National Defense University iCollege
Gennaro. J. Avvento, chief architect of the Architecting for Mission Performance Initiative, Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Solutions
Rolf Siegers, program lead and chief architect for the Raytheon Company
Also, I'd like to thank the many companies who entered but didn't make it as far as the winner's circle. The vast majority of the entries were compelling, but this was a highly competitive year. Initiatives evolve over time -- and you're all invited to enter the 2013 Enterprise Architecture Awards.
This article, "Celebrating the role of enterprise architecture in business," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Eric Knorr's Modernizing IT blog. And for the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld on Twitter.