Being an infrastructure & operations (I&O) professional is tough. How do we know? Because you tell us in the nearly 5,000 inquiries the I&O team does each year. We hear your challenges on server, storage, and network technologies. We field concerns on whether you should buy, build, lease, or forgo a datacenter altogether. We get tough questions on mobile devices and how to empower your users. Not to mention all of the “O” challenges around IT service management, asset management, ITIL adoption. The list literally goes on and on. I&O consumes nearly half of the overall IT operating budget – so it comes with a broad set of responsibilities.

That’s why I’m excited to announce a new way for you to get your tough I&O challenges solved: Your peers. Starting today, Forrester is launching an online community for infrastructure & operations professionals. It’s a premier destination for leaders to exchange ideas, opinions, and real-world solutions to the myriad of I&O responsibilities. Of course, Forrester analysts will be part of the community as well. But our goal is to facilitate the discussion and share our views. This is the place for you to hear from your peers, not just Forrester.

We’re also committed to connecting you with as many I&O pros as possible, so the community is open to all I&O readers — not just clients.

Here’s what you’ll find:

  • A simple platform on which you can pose your questions and get advice from peers who face the same business or technology challenges.
  • Insight from our analysts, who weigh in frequently on the issues and point to relevant research. 
  • Fresh perspective from peers, who share their real-world success stories, best practices, and templates.
  • Content on the latest technologies and trends affecting your business — from Forrester and other thought leaders.

We opened up the platform to a select few last week, as my colleague Richard Fichera noted. The discussion threads are already quite hot and kicking into high gear. Check out the threads on test and dev environments in the cloud, FCoE versus SAN switches, videoconferencing, and smartphone management policies.

 In the meantime, I encourage you to become part of the community and:

  • Ask a question about a business or technology problem.
  • Start a discussion on an emerging trend that’s having an impact on your work.
  • Contribute to an existing discussion thread from a community member.
  • Share templates with your peers for common artifacts like social media guidelines or campaign outlines.
  • Suggest topics for upcoming Forrester research reports.
  • Create a community profile.
  • Share your perspective with others.

Click here to go to Forrester’s Online Community For Infrastructure And Operations Professionals and bookmark it for easy reference.

See you in the community!