Provenance

First up, Vladimir Mikhalev. Vladimir has written more than 100 pieces of content for Docker in the past year. He has also helped us find customer stories that we've been able to document and share throughout the rest of the community, and he's met with multiple product managers internally to share his product feedback. Fantastic, Vladimir, we're so thankful for you.

Docker Captains Summit 2024 (recording)

Everything we publish goes through senior technical review, and his work clears it consistently. That's rare, and I don't say it lightly. Vladimir belongs to a small group of Captains whose work has shaped Docker's developer ecosystem while setting the standard for technical communication in our community.

Eva Bojorges, Senior Developer Relations Manager, Docker, Inc. (public recommendation on LinkedIn, October 2026)

He brought us well-developed drafts he had written himself, with customer results already gathered and a clear understanding of both the technical work and its business impact. The stories covered a data management company's move to containers and a cosmetics retailer’s shift to container-first development, with 60% faster deployments and 25% cost savings.

Daniel (Dan) Stelzer, partner marketing and customer case study program, Docker (public recommendation on LinkedIn, October 2026)

Vladimir is one of the people whose technical opinion others actively seek out before making security architecture decisions. That is not how peers treat someone with a strong personal brand. It is how peers treat someone whose answers have repeatedly been correct under load.

Mohammad-Ali A'râbi, Docker Captain and author of "Docker and Kubernetes Security" (recommendation letter, May 2026)

Vladimir consistently ranked among the top three for sustained contribution in a program that had over 50 ambassadors across all continents at its peak at the time … He is one of the strongest security practitioners I have worked with anywhere. … In years of looking for people like this, I have met very few who can judge whether AI-written code is safe to run and teach it at his level.

Gérald Crescione, Head of AI Security Engineers Community, Snyk (public recommendation on LinkedIn, October 2026)