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.