What do the top 3% of IT leaders know about workforce computing that you don’t? When will (or won’t) Windows 8 hit critical mass in enterprises? What about software-defined data centers and networks? How can IT support the mobile shopper?

If you’re an IT infrastructure and operations (I&O) professional looking for answers, read below. While I like to believe that www.forrester.com and this blog are your only two sources of information (wink, wink), I’ve handpicked advice and point of view from Forrester analysts quoted over the last two weeks in the The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, National Public Radio, InformationWeek, ZDNet, CIO, Computerworld, and others.

Some articles are very relevant for I&O leaders to act on (e.g.,workforce enablement, Windows 8, software-defined data centers, private cloud), while others offer important marketing and strategy insights for I&O leaders to be aware of (e.g., mobile shoppers, Google Glass, customer intelligence).

Is this useful? Let me know in the comment field below.

Thanks and enjoy your weekend,

Doug

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Very Relevant Business Technology News For I&O Leaders:

The Wall Street Journal
David Johnson
What The Top 3% Of IT Leaders Know About Workforce Computing
May 7, 2013

IDG News Service

If IBM is thinking about exiting the server business, why should you in enterprise IT stay in it? If BYOD accelerates browser diversity, how will you develop and support corporate apps differently? And how will the globalization of eCommerce impact your business?

These are just a few of the questions you might be asking yourself based on the headlines from this week. If you're looking for answers, hopefully this third installment of "Forrester In Your News" for IT Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) professionals will help.

Do you remember your “Current Events” class? It was the one where there was always a pop quiz on what’s happening in the news. Think if you were in that class today and there was a segment on business and technology: Where would you turn? 

While we like to believe that www.Forrester.com and this blog are your only two sources of information (wink, wink), we recognize that there are other valuable publications to help you stay on top of business and technology happenings. The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times, Associated Press, La Tribune, Forbes, Wired, CIO, InformationWeek, and ZDNet to name a few. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are also great resources.

To help IT Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) leaders stay current, I've handpicked media from this week that features quotes and data from Forrester’s I&O analysts and a few others. Some articles are very relevant to I&O leaders (ex. stories on BYOD, tablets, Microsoft), while others offer important marketing and strategy insights for I&O leaders to be aware of (ex. business trends in retail and banking, big data, voice of the customer strategies).

Is this useful? If so, I'm happy to do this weekly or every other week. Let me know in the comment field below.

Thanks and enjoy your weekend,

Doug

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Very Relevant Business Technology News For I&O Leaders:

The Wall Street Journal 
Featured Forrester Analyst: Christian Kane
No contract phones could complicate BYOD 
April 8, 2013

Okay, I know it sounds a little dramatic… but it’s true.

Over the last four months, Forrester Analysts Andre Kindness (@AndreKindness) and Lauren Nelson (@Lauren_E_Nelson) evaluated providers of data center networking and hosted private cloud solutions. Andre got dirty in the plumbing (uhh, I mean networking), and Lauren had her head in the clouds. Each report represents months of vendor and customer interviews, demos, and analysis. In short, they did the heavy lifting so you don’t have to.

So what did they find?

While there are no “Leaders” – there are a number of "Strong Performers" and "Contenders." This means that if you’re thinking of investing in infrastructure that your increasingly digital business will run on, you will have to make tradeoffs. Here are a few highlights of each report:

• Forrester’s Data Center Networking Wave™: Andre evaluated the eight most significant vendors across 85 criteria — Alcatel-Lucent, Arista Networks, Avaya, Brocade Communications Systems, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, HP, and Juniper Networks. Andre's assessment of the vendors' current offerings evaluated the completeness of each vendor’s solution to support a scalable, secure, standardized, shared, and simplified platform that would connect users to applications and data within a data center.

As the saying goes, “If you’re not different from your competition, by definition you can’t be better.” IT infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders should take this to heart.

In 2012, we enter the "the age of the customer" where increased global competition combined with technology-led disruption erodes traditional competitive barriers across all industries. At the same time, it's easier than ever for empowered employees and application developers to circumvent the I&O group to take advantage of new desktop, mobile, and tablet devices as well as cloud-based software and infrastructure you don’t support. They're creating their own "greenfield" environments without your help.

 It's time for I&O leaders to do things differently. This starts by dispelling the notion that greenfield opportunities require significant financial investment and organizational change or are limited to startups and build-outs in emerging markets. Greenfield opportunities present themselves in every corner of even the most established and mature businesses, and those greenfields can be small, iterative, and agile.

This year, we will dedicate Forrester's Infrastructure & Operations Forums to the theme of "Leapfrog Your Global Competition: Design Your Greenfield Infrastructure Today." Join us May 24 to 25 in Las Vegas and June 19 to 20 in Paris as we tackle everything you need to capitalize on your greenfield opportunities of every scale across data center, desktop, mobile, and IT operations environments.