Expotition to the Cloud

One day, Pooh comes across Christopher Robin putting on his boots and Pooh is very excited for Big Boots mean that Christopher Robin is going on an Adventure. Adventures are great and Pooh tidies himself up and tries to look 'Ready for Anything'!

Christopher Robin announces that they are going on an Expedition, this is a thrilling announcement for Pooh as he's never really been on an Expotition and they sound just thing for a 'Bear of Little Brain' to be doing. Christopher Robin tells Pooh that they are going to find an Expedition to find the North Pole and the North Pole is something that you discover and there is no explanation above that required!

Pooh rounds up all his friends and them to prepare for an Expotition to find the North Pole; the message gets rather garbled and Pooh seems to forget half of it on the way round.  All the animals gather, including some who are not invited but who turn up anyway and off the friends set to find the North Pole!

The trip is fraught with danger involving Ambushes (which are not types of Gorse Bush which fall on you but are suprising all the same); Pooh sitting on thistles and Eeyore eating them. Eventually Rabbit and Christopher Robin have to consult about what the 'North Pole' is; indeed they used to know but now they have forgotten but they decide that it must a pole stuck in the ground.

Meanwhile Roo has decided to have a wash in the stream but unfortunately he falls in and although being a brave little Roo; everyone is worried about what might happen. Fortunately for all, Pooh has found a long pole and manages to use it to rescue Roo! 'Hurrah for Pooh', I say!

And what is more, as if by some miracle; the Pole that Pooh has found has turned out to be the very North Pole that they were looking for!

So what does this have to tell us about the journey to Cloud? What can we learn from the animals and Christopher Robin?

I see Christopher Robin as the CIO or at least a senior level manager in a company; he has heard of this wondrous thing called 'Cloud Computing' and has decided that his company needs to adventure towards it.

Unfortunately Christopher Robin knows very little detail and even worse, he asks his friend Pooh to communicate the message; now despite being a really rather marvellous bear; Pooh is not the world's greatest communicator and the message about what they are trying to achieve is somewhat garbled. In fact, no-one turns up to the adventure with any real clarity about what is to be achieved and what the goal really is! 

As the adventure continues and people start to grumble a bit; Christopher Robin has to turn to Rabbit who appears to be acting in a consultative capacity. It is fair to say that Rabbit like most consultants really doesn't know what he is talking about but he agrees with the client's vague ideas anyway.

Meanwhile, Roo decides to do something by himself; which is like the user who decides they are going to attempt to do something and as is sometimes the case, this leads to deep water. Perhaps like a proof of concept application which grows out of all proportion and is running away; fortunately Pooh is on hand with something he's found to rescue the day and everyone is happy. 

Even better, what he has just found is declared to be what they were all looking for anyway. In our theoretical IT company, I would suggest that they have not found Cloud Computing but a hosting company. But close enough and everyone sets off home feeling happy that they have discovered precisely what they were looking for even if they didn't know what they were looking for anyway.