Sharon Woods
Director of J9 Hosting and Compute, DISA
Launching the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, a multi-vendor commercial cloud contract with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle, leads the list of major recent accomplishments for Sharon Woods.
JWCC provides the Defense Department with an acquisition vehicle for procuring cloud services at every classification level, from the strategic level to the operational edge. Since receiving the contract on Dec. 7, 2022, Woods’ team has focused on onboarding customers, gathering their feedback, assessing contract use, and introducing new features like operational edge devices. The team aims to provide a cloud solution tailored to the varied needs of warfighters in all operational contexts.
One piece of career advise Woods values is to take smart risks and not be afraid to fail.
“I lead a technology organization, and I encourage my team to embrace the Agile ‘fail forward’ mentality every day,” she said. “It’s important to create a safe space for employees to experiment and take small risks and to not be afraid of failure. We learn and grow from small failures by failing forward towards bigger successes.”
Why Watch
In 2024, Woods’ J9 Hosting and Compute team at the Defense Information Systems Agency is heavily focused on transformation. The team published a strategic plan, which lays out actions and initiatives for 2024 and 2025 to transform technology, processes and people to become the department’s preferred hybrid-cloud provider.
Fun Fact: “I am a huge heavy metal fan,” Woods said. “My favorite band is Metallica, and my favorite song is ‘Master of Puppets.’ I also recently started playing the violin. I’m terrible at it, but I’m a lifelong learner and I’m embracing the discomfort of being a novice instrument player.”