text: Tech’s hottest category is transforming how we communicate, collaborate at work and protect our identities in the digital age. For the fourth consecutive year, the Forbes Cloud 100, produced in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures, recognizes the best private cloud companies in the world. Ranging from small startups to private-equity-backed giants, and scattered across the globe from Silicon Valley to Australia and Belgium, the companies on the Cloud 100 stand out for their growth, sales, valuation and culture, as well as a reputation score derived from consultation with 40 CEO judges from their public-cloud-company peers.
  Stripe remains in the top slot, but there’s movement nearly everywhere else, with no fewer than 17 companies from last year’s list graduating off through acquisition or IPO. Stepping in are high-flying newcomers like Plaid (No. 17) and TripActions (No. 19), along with a new top five of cloud data warehouse Snowflake, robotic process automation standout UiPath, infrastructure automator HashiCorp and data analytics leader Datadog.
  Though infrastructure and development companies lead the way on the 2019 Cloud 100 list, design tools are making a move and no-office, fully remote setups are gaining traction. With competition to make the list fierce and the bar higher than ever before, this year’s Cloud 100 represents the strongest, and most diverse, group of companies yet.
  This article was originally published by Alex Konrad at Forbes.com, September 11, 2019. To see the full list go to https://www.forbes.com/cloud100/#1e279d95f941.