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Shaheeda Nizar, senior director of engineering at GoDaddy Operating Company LLC, spoke at the CloudNOW 5th Annual “Top 10 Women in Cloud” Innovation Awards about her team-leading experience at GoDaddy. CloudNOW is a non-profit consortium of leading women in cloud computing and converging technologies.

“I was really inspired by how far they’ve been able to go, how much business they’ve been able to build with relatively small investments in technology,” she told Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), host of theCUBE*, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio. (*Disclosure below)

GoDaddy’s use of OpenStack

Nizar is leading the company’s efforts in both private and public cloud, which it is building upon OpenStack technology.

She said of the team of engineers she leads in this project: “It’s a team of about 12 purely working on OpenStack,” and she added that GoDaddy as a whole impressed her with the way they all rallied to implement new technological changes.

GoDaddy’s women-in-tech connection

Nizar said that GoDaddy’s motive to shift the economy toward small businesses has contributed to its interest in women in tech.

“A lot of small businesses are run by women, so GoDaddy decided that we needed to promote, grow and advocate for women both inside the company and among our customers,” Nizar stated. She mentioned the company’s hiring of female CTO Elissa Murphy as an example of this strategy.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the CloudNOW – 5th Annual “Top 10 Women in Cloud” Innovation Awards. (*Disclosure: Some segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE are sponsored. However, no sponsorships have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

 Photo by SiliconANGLE