GoDaddy has hired 26-year Microsoft data center and cloud computing veteran Arne Josefsberg as its new chief infrastructure officer and chief information officer — a key position for the domain company as it expands internationally, hones its engineering prowess and beefs up its cloud services for small businesses.
Josefsberg played a key role in establishing and developing Microsoft’s data center and cloud infrastructure, dating back to the original MSN team and continuing up through the creation of the Redmond company’s Office 365 online service.
He left Microsoft two years ago and has been working most recently as chief technology officer at enterprise cloud IT company ServiceNow.
Josefsberg started at GoDaddy last week, and he’ll be splitting his time between GoDaddy headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the company’s new engineering office in Kirkland, Wash. In the new role he is working with fellow Microsoft vets including Elissa Murphy, GoDaddy’s chief technology officer; and Blake Irving, the GoDaddy chief executive.
GoDaddy has hired engineers and other technical talent from companies including Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Yahoo, eBay and AT&T over the past year, since Irving came on board as chief executive.
He will be drawing heavily on his experience as he works to build a highly scalable, highly available and secure cloud infrastructure for the company. GoDaddy currently has its own centralized data center in addition to a presence in co-location facilities. A big part of Josefsberg’s role will be helping the company in its strategy to expand into international markets.
“Our vision here is to really become not only a market leader but also a technology leader,” Josefsberg said in an interview today, when asked about his decision to take the GoDaddy job. “We’re going to build a global, very large, scalable infrastructure.”
