Why Do You Need A Cloud Strategy?

By Steven Kaye CDir FIoD

steve.kaye@cloudsolutions.co.uk

Contents

Introduction  2

Cloud Business  3

Where do we start?  3

Summary  4

Introduction

What is the Cloud?

This question alone could fill a book but a simple answer is that the cloud is everything the Internet was meant to be, which is an infinite amount of resources available transparently to the user community, on demand. And like the Internet in the last decade, the cloud has the potential to impose disruptive change on any business, only much faster.

It’s not cloud if………

1.) Its not presented through a browser.

2.) You need to buy additional hardware.

3.) There needs to be a team of consultants in your office.

4.) You’re subjected to large and complex upgrades

5.) You have to pay a separate maintenance fee.

6.) You need to load any software on your own machines.

Why does it matter?

Many organizations have aligned IT spend with business operations but investment returns are often disappointing. These strategic investments answer yesterday’s challenges; they cannot adapt quickly to fast moving environments or provide sufficient customization at the user level.

Large enterprises are particularly vulnerable to enlightened competitors who, though lacking the same economies of scale, can leverage cloud computing to achieve similar outcomes for a fraction of the cost.

Cloud computing in the hands of business users can really improve productivity without changing underlying systems or processes. This kind of collaborative, powerful  computing is rapidly becoming an essential part of any company’s IT portfolio.

Cloud Business

Take some well known, very high growth companies who utilise cloud technology.

eBay’s website auctions generate the company annual revenues of 6 billion dollars. In order to reach that size  before cloud computing, would have taken 13 years through television or 38 years through radio.

Facebook  have 1 in 30 of the world’s population as registered users, who they claim, spend 3 billion minutes a day on Facebook.

Google’s search engine performs more than 2 billion searches every day on over 1 million computer servers.

Each of these examples draws upon the immense power of “on demand” cloud computing with infinite scalability and instant global reach.

Where do we start?

According to Russ Daniels, CTO Cloud Services at HP, “Something profound is occurring, something that will extend the reach of Information Technology to vast new markets, increase its value to existing ones and change the structure of the entire IT industry”. He goes on to say in his blog “Cloud Services enable businesses to create richer, deeper relationships with customers, to treat each one as an individual, to customize offerings to meet the specific needs of each, and to integrate with the business partners to make this happen smoothly and  affordably.”

This eventuality is for me, the most important aspect for the IT market place. It exposes ‘the all mouth and no trousers’ vendors who are accustomed to ripping off customers at will without sharing the risks they impose on their customers. It encourages a totally transparent collusion between customer and supplier and most importantly gives the supplier the opportunity to make a massive tangible difference to their customer’s bottom line and future success.

First Step

Is to look for a partner(s) who is/are focused on cloud technology.

Technically they should exhibit experience and knowledge around the different types of cloud and the security and provisioning of cloud based services. They should be proficient around mash-ups, html 5, web 2.0,SOA, virtualization techniques to a lesser extent and  CAP management around networks and storage.

On top of all this, the partner also needs to understand the ‘interface to the outside world’ of core applications such as ERP, and other on premise software via web services and SOA. They should also demonstrate abilities around change management and training and support

Business process modeling and design is also important. Development capability is a must. Knowledge and/or ownership of sophisticated migration tools would also be extremely useful.

Commercially these partners should not be reliant on the income associated with CAPEX based projects for hardware, software and services. Why? Because therein would be a real conflict of interest. Those organizations are desperate to stall the day when they must budget and survive off subscription based sales. They will attempt to sell you anything but Cloud!

Step 2

Engage with them to perform a high-level audit or discovery of business processes and IT operations to see if there is an opportunity to supplement these with cloud solutions. Ensure there is a road map that aligns with current business strategy and a proposed plan that covers all potential risks.

Do not accept the premise that you will always have to make changes or switch off your on premise systems. Of course, around utility computing such as messaging and collaboration and other personal productivity tools, the whole point might be to rip and replace this bit. In the case of the systems that you have developed/purchased that run your organization and is your company’s intellectual property then tread very carefully. The idea is to initially make two way communication with these systems without expensive modifications.

Remodeling your business processes at another layer above your core systems and not within presents you with the opportunity to innovate very quickly and align.

In the future these on premise systems vendors will be encouraging you to move these systems to the cloud also because of the compelling financial advantages, increased security and flexibility. The whole idea is to produce a technical environment that is agile enough to change with your company’s strategy and market positioning efforts. It’s not about saving money, unless you are just switching mail systems. It’s about making the whole organization agile and reactive to impending changes outside of the organizations control.

Step 3

Present the roadmap to the Board for consideration and approval so they are aware of the business impact of increased productivity, utility-style costs and business flexibility through cloud computing.

Summary

Don’t wait too long – somebody upstairs will be asking for your cloud strategy soon!

Steve Kaye CDir FIoD

steve.kaye@cloudsolutions.co.uk

217 The Triangle

Exchange Square

Manchester

0161 838 5664

www.cloudsolutions.co.uk

Footnote;

I would like to thank Cordys and in particular, Jan Baan, the forefather of ERP for some of this content, who I was honoured to meet with last month.

Are we are about to witness the return of being a Nation of Shopkeepers?

Well, maybe not shopkeepers but possibly the majority of us could become self-employed in the not too distant future with all the pluses and minuses that might entail.

Think for a moment about these constituent ingredients that could cause that perfect storm in the next few years.

• Most organisations that we use to refer to as ‘blue chip’ have either disappeared or are propped up by Government.
• The bar just keeps getting higher to go to a good university and yet we still fail to educate and prepare our kids properly for commerce and industry.
• There has never been a higher percentage of kids out of work (am ignoring Government stats because they include kids flipping burgers with a master’s degree, as having a job).
• Over 50% of the UK population is employed by the government and one impact of that is the fatal amount of red tape being produced.
• The US Unemployment figure stands at 10% and nobody is telling us its going to get better.
• We have to do more than we are doing about Global Warming.
• Most people need access to Data in order to conduct their work.
• Most people are doing this through the Internet.
• We can now connect to the things we need to, anywhere on anything and our kids and their kids will demand this.
• Will it make sense to power and pay for buildings just to store paper and data?
• Will the current employment conditions continue to work or are we going to see a massive change?
• What if we were all able to work, when we want to and play when we want to?
• What if we were able to do this work for a multitude of different employers, or even for the common good?
• Will we see the end of recruitment and headhunting as we know it, to be replaced by Online Work Auctions where we bid for work? An hour, a day, a week , a year?
• Or just bidding for contracts/pieces of R&D etc
• How about not waiting 4 or 7 years to make your voice heard politically but electronically voting for what you believe and want in real-time? (no more shall we or shall we not have a referendum?!)
• What about Pension Schemes? How about your own pension scheme where you govern the charges you pay, or heck, just playing on the stock market yourself! The data is there!

These are going to be very interesting times and I’m glad that Technology is finally playing its part in a positive fashion with the advent of the Cloud and the accompanying fair practices it is generating. If you have a minute please take a look at this poll and let me know what you think.

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/100070/mfrkc

Steve Kaye

HP succumbs to the Cloud

The IT Market is dismantling its legacy approaches to the customer and embracing Cloud Solutions  as demand soars.

The Cloud Phenomena, sometimes described as accessing all of your data through a browser is well and truly here. Whilst we have to feel sorry for the 9000 people and families affected, one would have to be a Luddite not to embrace this as an IT user. That’s 9000 rather large salaries , whose cost won’t have to be passed on to you, the customer. For the first time in a long time the IT industry has brought about something with huge socio-economic change. That’s right. The emphasis is not on technology but on socio – economics. All the comments about this news story has been about societal change and not technology. There are worries about centralised, automated centres for everything from computing to the supply of food, in terms of employment. Even some talk about the robots/Computers taking over! This is the same kind of rhetoric that was made 250 years ago when the railway system came about, from the people who were gainfully employed on the canal system It’s change and with change comes worry.

This won’t be an overnight nirvana though from the big boys. They are hardly likely to give away and change their margin model overnight. The likes of Microsoft, Oracle, Intel and HP will take longer to change their margin model  then they will to build their data centres. Meanwhile other vendors who have been quietly building super scaled data centres for the last 10 years to support billions of users will gather momentum more quickly. For them the economic model is different. So my advice to you folks out there is that if you don’t have a transition plan in place for the cloud, soon, you will find yourself  being outpaced by your competition and your costs squeezed by your customers. This is particularly relevant to SMB, the economic backbone of the nation.

News��/��CTS sees huge growth in ‘The Cloud’ THEBUSINESSDESK.COM

News��/��CTS sees huge growth in ‘The Cloud’ THEBUSINESSDESK.COM.

We’re Hiring!

Technical Account Manager – Google Apps

The Role

As part of a young fast growing leading technology supplier, based in the UK and Germany, your role will be crucial to the success of the company. Cloud Technology Solutions was formed in 2009 to take advantage of the evolutionary revolution known as cloud computing. We are looking for exceedingly talented customer facing professionals who have a strategic understanding of the IT marketplace and in particular, the premise of cloud computing and Google’s position and technology around their Google Apps platform. These roles will report directly in to the CEO, such is the importance of their standing. A very competitive package is being offered to attract the best.
From a technology perspective you will have a deep understanding of one or more legacy email systems such as Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus or Novell Groupwise. You will be trained in all things Google to equip you for your role and will work along side our VP’s of technology and development initially, however any knowledge that you currently have around Google Apps will be to your advantage.
We are looking for personalities whose values are as sincere as ours around value for money, customer care, green computing and a desire to change the IT paradigm of today. Your customer facing skills need to be exceptional and you will be operating around architectural design, implementation, pre and post sales support.
You will be based from home and equipped with everything you need to be successful in your role. A significant amount of travel will be involved both within the UK, Europe, USA and AsiaPAC.

The Detail

After undergoing training around Google Apps you will be expected to assist Sales on a daily basis. We have a methodology around the adoption process which involves proposal preparations, piloting systems, design and implementation of roll out and advice regarding ongoing support plus the use of any 3rd party tools that we resell around security and integration (which training is available for). You will often work alongside Google sales and technical so excellent teamwork skills are a must. You will also undergo training around our own Cloud Migrator Tool as we almost always use this during the pilot and implementation phases.
A knowledge of Help Desk tools would be advantageous as we also offer direct support to our customers and you would be expected to be involved especially during the next 12 months.
So what would a typical day look like?

After a period of induction and training, a typical day may consist of any (or all!) of the following tasks:-

• Visiting potential clients to present Google technology and our methodology regarding migration.
• Working from home preparing a proposal
• Meeting with colleagues from Google to plan a customer event or visit
• Planning a seminar or workshop and presenting to potential clients off site.
• Taking the odd support call from existing clients
• Helping to test functionality improvements in our tools and 3rd party tools we support
• Attending Google events
• Updating our marketing tools around presentations, webinars etc
• Organising and presenting webinars
• Meetings and conversations with other CTS employees

So what do we think a good candidate would look like?

You will have strong interpersonal skills with a balance between friendliness and firmness. You will possess much confidence in your own abilities and be open to being taught new things. You may have existing pre-sales experience although your personality is more important to us. Typical environments where we would expect to find good candidates might be members of special interest groups on social networks around messaging and collaboration. You may have an academic background involved day to day in running an academic IT network from a messaging and collaboration, user security point of view. A deep understanding of one or more legacy offerings will be very important. Our targets for migration include users of Microsoft, Novell and IBM. You will be measured and awarded based on customer satisfaction, your teamwork and of course your influence in helping us to migrate as many folks as possible to a cloud based solution including Google Apps.

The Company

Cloud Technology Solutions is a preferred (managed) partner of Google. It has deep expertise around migrating legacy messaging and collaboration users to Google Apps. It also offers complementary solutions around integration, security, archiving and storage. Our growth plans are aggressive to match the industries anticipated adoption of cloud computing (20% of the worlds commercial email to be in the cloud by 2012 according to Gartner). We have our own development capability and our Cloud Migrator Tool is proving to be one of the most successful approaches to migration out there. We currently have projects that span the globe so overseas travel will be required.

Google Apps

Make no mistake this is a very compelling solution to the problems of messaging and collaboration using existing legacy solutions. You will hear arguments around data security and other technology spokes in the wheel but they are fictitious. Nevertheless there is a challenge because this may mean significant change to organisations and you will always meet resistance to change! You will help us drive that change ( akin to stop asking people to build power generators and just use the socket in the wall!) and you must be skillful and able in that capacity.

Reward

These positions will go a long way towards our continuing growth and success. To that end we want to make that you enjoy that success with us, (and share some of the risk!).
A competitive base salary based on your experience, qualifications and general standing in the IT market place plus an attractive bonus package which could include stock options is on offer. This will be augmented by a company family medical plan, car allowances and pension contributions.

The Process

Suitable candidates will be initially tested on their technical prowess and that will be followed up by interviews with the sales staff and CEO and brought to a successful conclusion. All communication must be carried out through our recruitment consultants, GK recruitment.

Please quote CTS-TAM-WEB in all your communication. Good Luck!!

GK Recruitment can be contacted on 0845 1239454 or email info@gkrecruitment.com

How To Go Google

Having visited and spoke with many companies over the last 6 months, there seems to be a rising tide of interest in all things Google but in particular the adoption of their messaging and collaboration tools collectively referred to as Google Apps.
Gartner reckons that 20% of the worlds corporate email will be in the cloud by 2012 and to be sure, Google will be a, possibly the, major player in that space so its right to be interested in developments whether you are a small business or a corporate giant.
The key point of this post though is not why or when you go Google but how.
I’ve had very disparate feedback in terms of how differing organisations aim to tackle the prospect of moving their organisation to this new platform. It has ranged from “I’ve used Gmail for years and I’m not anticipating any problems” to addressing the elephant in the room at big corporates with 2 year worth of analysis and study. Both extreme and both wide of the mark in my opinion.
There are of course a lot of options in between, but the ones least likely to succeed are the ones that don’t prioritise training and support at the very top of the agenda. The worst case is ‘customer revolt’ (and remember this could go all the way up to board level) and even best case is not satisfactory which is a serious delay in personal productivity amongst the users. The latter despite the fact that Google offers free, class leading help for users utilising all forms of media. That’s not the point though.
The point is that it doesn’t matter how easy it is to step on the Google bus and drive. Its different. And different means change and the management thereof.
So at the risk of teaching granny to suck eggs etc I’ve put the following guidelines down, aimed at IT Management/HR as a proven way of adopting Google and ensuring a rapid decrease in the time it takes for the end users to maximise their use of Google Apps.
Don’t worry! This approach shouldn’t delay or cost an inordinate amount of money!! For more information on our approach please go to http://www.cloudsolutions.co.uk/main/why-google/which-apps/how-to-go-google/ where you’ll also find links to referenceable and useful templates to get the job done easier.

ASSESS

the existing costs of the following; Messaging, Collaboration, Docs and Spreadsheets, Intranet development, email servers, backup servers, storage and tapes, SPAM, Anti Virus, administration, support and management salary costs etc.
Ask yourself who will be the agents of change within your organisation, hereinafter referred to as ‘Google Guides’! More on this later.

PERFORM

a total cost of ownership study over a 3 year period comparing the platforms you are considering and your existing legacy system. Also complete a Return On Investment study.

CONDUCT

a user survey to determine the use of messaging and processes they currently have adopted. If you haven’t already, determine who the ‘power’ users are. You should have completed a technical audit of servers, comms and software associated with delivering your existing messaging and collaboration platform.

SELECT

the most apt size of Pilot Program for your organisation. We recommend up to 10 users for a network of up to 500 users and spanning up to 50 users for much larger enterprises. These pilot users will become your Google Guides. So what does the ideal Google Guide look like? They may be a power user of your existing system but they must be adaptive to change and understand the benefits that the new system will give the organisation. They will represent a segment or more of your organisation (not necessarily by management) and will have an in depth understanding of the systems, processes and hidden protocols of your unique organisation.
This is the vital step. By mentoring the Google Guides from a technology standpoint you will equip them to mentor other users such that the new technology embeds in to your internal systems, processes and protocols and you will maximise rapid take up and so realise massive functional benefits in productivity.

SELECT

Any additional software that is required such as blackberry integration, microsoft integration, any migration tools needed etc etc (see http://www.cloudsolutions.co.uk/services/your-next-step/).
Start the Solution Supplier Selection process.

BUILD

your case for change and submit. Develop company training plan.

DECIDE

on the level of support required external to the company and agree SLA’s with suppliers.

MONITOR

end user satisfaction regularly via intranet and monitor performance of suppliers.

SIT BACK

and bask in the glory!
Steve Kaye

A Cloud is a Cloud………or is it?

In this blog I’m going to try and define, why people are struggling to define cloud computing!

Cloud computing per se is not a new technology or product. The National Institute of Standards defines it thus:-

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

Then they go on to say

“Cloud computing is still an evolving paradigm. Its definitions, use cases, underlying technologies, issues, risks, and benefits will be refined in a spirited debate by the public and private sectors. These definitions, attributes, and characteristics will evolve and change over time.”

So stay awake!

My version attempts to simplify this by asking some simple questions i.e.

Who is the Application Owner?

Who is the Data Owner?

Who is the Hardware Owner?

The answers to those questions or requirements will determine whether there is a need for access to a Public, Private, Hybrid or a Community Cloud. In the future its envisaged that organisations may need the use of all four different variants in the future and as our friends at NIST stated, its subject to evolving change. The enabling factors in all cases is the emergence of virtualisation as a tool and fast broadband anywhere from anything. Are you reading this BT?

The easiest to explain is the public cloud. This variant will dominate because of the ‘normalisation’ of messaging and collaboration through the use of Google, Facebook, eBay, online banking etc etc. and the equalisation of functionality between a home user and an ‘at work’ user ( sometimes the same person!). Gartner reckons that 20% of the worlds messaging will be in the public cloud by 2011. That’s a heck of a lot! Public cloud access requires a browser. That’s it.

All of the hardware, application, networking, storage and OS are provided by the vendor. I would argue that you would need some kind of identity management software if you didn’t already utilise such a thing. MyOneLogin is a proven SSO tool from the cloud which if you’re a Google Premier Apps user comes free. Other examples of public cloud are vendors such as Salesforce.com. This public cloud concept is also referred to as Software as a Service or SaaS. In this case you should be the data owner i.e. if ever you decide to switch this service off and go elsewhere then your agreement or SLA should state that you will get your data back in a form that is readable and transferrable. Finally,  although also referred to as Public Cloud you will also see public clouds dedicated to large groups of users only, for example the US Government. In my opinion this is the route the NHS should have taken for patient records rather than the £30 billion pounds of spend devoted to BT and the other SI’s and partners which will fail. However I digress again!

Lets tackle the next one which is a private cloud. This is for organisations that need to be assured that the data lives in a unique, known space. A private cloud can live on or off premise and can be managed either by yourself or by a 3rd party. This form of cloud is popular with vendors who still want to sell you lots of tin and software licences, still but its definition is governed by the fact that the only data in this cloud belongs to the organisation. Typical vendors are IBM, HP, Oracle and eventually all of the other suspects.

Ok next up is a hybrid cloud. This is where there is a combination of 2 or more private, public and community clouds that are bound together by technology for reasons of data and application portability. Think of it as it being much the same as integrating your messaging system with your ERP or CRM system on premise, except it isn’t!!

Finally the community cloud. This is a cloud shared by several organisations that have a common purpose Examples could be a government and its various departments, a charity and its donors etc etc. It could be managed by the organisations themselves or a 3rd party and can be on or off premise.

Ok the other buzz phrases you are likely to come across are PaaS or Platform as a service and IaaS or Infrastructure as a service. Both would sit in a cloud environment and could be any of the variants listed above. PaaS refers to suppliers that offer a platform such as programming language and application builders on their infrastructure for the customer to build their own customised applications. The customer may have some control over the hosted environment but does not control the underlying infrastructure i.e. OS, storage, memory, network et al

IaaS is where the customer needs to provision and de-provision additional infrastructure for their own use i.e. choice of OS, CPU, memory, storage and some network. Although the underlying infrastructure is controlled by the vendor, the customer has the perception of infinite growth and instant switch on and off of resources. This environment is proving increasingly popular with customers who have specific pains around software testing, big on and off projects, drug research etc etc. Typical suppliers are Amazon,GoGrid and Rightspace.

Why go for any of these clouds?

Well whichever cloud is of interest they all present several advantages as to how to do IT today. Its very compelling and disruptive especially to the legacy computer vendors whose go to market and value chains are under serious threat.

So what does it provide then?

Economies of scale i.e. computing and networking power on a massive scale which has to be protected and ran with ultimate investment in security and speed.

Elasticity i.e. like the electricity supply coming out of your wall, take as much as you need when you need it, easily.

Financially i.e. potentially move IT spend from Capex to Opex.

Accessibility i.e. capture your information from any device i.e. mobile, netbook or anything that supports a browser

Security. Yes I would argue that most organisations will put their data in a more secure environment than they currently have. It doesn’t matter how much you have spent on security software and hardware if you give out USB sticks, CD’s, floppies (I’m showing my age again) and yes laptops and phones. Read the papers!!

Cloud Computing – IT Industry reinventing itself again or revolutionary?

I’m sure a  lot of you of a certain age and experience will be recoiling at the thought of yet more catch phrases and TLA’s to get to grips with to keep up with the youngsters. You might also be a little alarmed to watch your kids spewing out steady streams of data on any device they can get their hands on, at great speed and not caring a jot where that data is going and who is looking at it. Our kids have embraced this world of an average of more than one mobile phone per people on the planet,  Ebay, Online banking, shopping and especially social networking through Facebook et al. Seamless, easy communication and collaboration is at their fingertips 24/7.

For the first time in the history of computing going back 70 years, home and academic technology users have a distinct competitive edge over business computing. I’m currently looking out of my hotel bedroom window in Silicon Valley at a veritable sea of high tech company buildings supposedly focussed on supplying businesses with the very best that they can offer….. and its not good enough. I will be using the phrase  ’good enough’ in this and later blogs.

So what’s going on? Is Cloud computing akin to all the great technology discoveries that have come from Silicon Valley? No.

Is it a re-hash of a bunch of existing products to re-energise the IT market? No.

The first reference of a ‘cloud’ that I had come across, ooh, 30 years ago, in my all too long career was a protocol known as X25. The inference was that this protocol would guarantee delivery of your data but that it would get there of its own accord and you shouldn’t worry your pretty little head as to how it gets there. Anyway, I digress.

Certainly cloud computing is here to stay and will be adopted in one form or another by everyone. Repeat everyone! The best description I can give is evolutionary revolution. It is as important as the conversion that was made hundreds of years ago from water based travel and commerce via the canals to the railway and steam. That conversion could not have happened though without it being financially compelling and the availability of raw material such as iron and steel. In cloud computing’s case the equivalent is the ready access to high speed internet and the advent and maturity of virtualisation of machines and data. Add to that massive data centres and by massive I mean 100′s of thousands of closely coupled systems and we have something that changes all of the metrics of computing i.e. price, performance, reliability, security, elasticity ( having as much of you need when you need it). The economics of the IT industry has changed overnight. More power and money have been put back in the hands of the client. So it will happen.

Our kids will insist on it.

In the next thrilling issue I will discuss the main resistance to adopting cloud i.e. security and go on to discuss the different kinds of cloud (you didn’t think we would let you get away with just one type did you?). I will also explain some of the jargon, what all the players (vendors) are doing and saying.

Steve Kaye

6 November 2009

Santa Clara

A Walk around the Yorkshire Dales Part 2

Day 1 – Grassington to Buckden

Oh heck! Black Sheep best bitter yes, Jamesons..no! I felt like I’d  had a mouth transplant! The day looks hot too and we don’t get to climb until 12 miles have elapsed and get some of that cooling breeze on the tops. Right; Garmin set for day one, huge breakfast consumed along with a couple of pints of water, camel bladder full with 2 litres more and off we go on the climb up Main street in Grassington. Am momentarily cheered up by one of those huge felt hands with “Up the Clarets” emblazoned, hanging out of an upstairs window of the post office. We are everywhere. Gary haroomphed and made the point about relegation in one season.

Very soon we are out on the hills and it feels good. I know the first part of the journey isn’t too demanding before we reach Arncliffe where we would rest at the famous (imfamous?) Falcon Arms. Passed Kilnsey Crag, a bit of road work and we are soon by the river side and after an encounter with the fittest, amazonian girls with endless legs (G. tells me they were probably eagle scouts or something and admitted to being one himself when he was younger). After 6 miles we marched in to Arncliffe. The oxygen rush to the blood now having a positive effect and we found the Falcon Arms at the top of the green. We both groaned as we removed our 60 pound sacks and entered the establishment for a little light refreshment.  This place has to be seen to be believed! Beer…….served not from barrels and pumped up to the bar, oh no, served in a jug!! And served by the Yorkshire equivalent of Basil Fawlty, although no self respecting Yorkshireman would call himself that! G. ordered what was to be his standard quencher of a pint of J2O and I risked a pint out of the jug. We sat in a snug straight out of the 50′s or 60′s with stuffed birds (falcons I presume) for company. We had our own packed lunch but didn’t dare consume it anywhere near Basil’s premises but there was a group of blokes tucking in to pork pie and peas which is the only offering. Apparently they had to wait a long time for it but twas worth it. We amused ourselves by watching various groups of youngsters trying to slip by the bar unnoticed to use the only convenience in the village. Every time they attempted to do this the landlord barked “Are you a paying customer?”, knowing full well they weren’t. “Do you know why I should spend 300 pounds to empty the cess tank so that you can use it instead of using the fells you’ve just come off?” Priceless. We went outside to consume our now sweaty cheese sandwiches and crisps. Refreshed once more we headed of to Litton, a few miles down the valley. Beautiful piece of the walk but I kept thinking about Birks Fell looming up on the right hand side. We would need to climb it to get in to Wharfedale and to Buckden. I wasn’t looking forward to this bit at all. I’d now done 12 miles, the most I had done since the coast to coast but that was ten years and three stones ago. I was beginning to feel it. At around 4:30 at the base of this gruesome looking hill (technically a mountain by 1 foot!) I nervously chewed on my apple to gain strength. I knew it was going to be very tough for the first couple of days until my body got over the shock of exercise but get Birks Fell out of the way, have a big rest and the other peaks, pikes, mountains and fells would come easier..I hoped. By the time I reached the top, I was drenched in sweat and pretty breathless but felt strangely re-energised. Gary had made the ascent like an excited puppy on its first big day out; pouncing up the hill, running back to ensure I didn’t need CPR and then back up again. At the top the cloud had rolled in, and like a lot of fells the path was indistinct. We couldn’t see Wharfedale at all. We made our way down, driven by the thoughts of standing under a shower for an hour, more liquid intake and some decent grub at the Buck Inn. For some reason the pub was staffed by young Catalonians, and as I was directed to the stairs to my room, one of these young men took one look and offered to take my rucksack up there for me, which I, regretfully, savagely declined. Showered, cup of tea and a crafty fag; time to check in with the family and she who must be obeyed. Of course, no mobile signal! Landline then; yelps of delight and relief that it wasn’t Fell Rescue with some bad news about a coronary they wished me well for the rest of the trip, but only after my daughter made me whisper sweet nothings down the phone to our resident black male Pug, Louie, who was amazed not to find me sat in my study chewing on fags and doughnuts. G. had his usual veggie offering. Apparently veggies only eat Mushroom Stroganoff in Yorkshire.

A Walk around the Yorkshire Dales Part One

Well. I managed it.

 76 miles, about 20,000 feet of climb (and descent) with a 60 pound pack in 30 degrees (at times). Put that way, for a 54 year old obese smoking desk jockey, it does sound like the  basis for a nightmare or two. However, I am happy to report that it was a wonderful 6 days (and 7 nights).

That despite the fact that my mountain goat, 10 stone, non smoking walking partner and I consumed huge meals, i.e. cooked Yorkshire breakfasts  and mountainous evening meals plus of course lots of beer (well it is called the Innway guide to the Yorkshire Dales!) I seemed to have lost the equivalent of two bags of sugar A DAY in weight. It’s no good saying “well its just fluid, you’ll soon put it back on” because we  have had at least 10 pints of fluid a day to stay hydrated and alive.

This 6 day ‘re-connection’ with the land has also been of huge benefit mentally. My stressed up MD friend and I have come back in some sort of strange state of Karma. Yes I know it doesn’t last but then neither does the flu. A few courses of this type of medicine should be prescribed to all stressed out 40 to 60 something year olds by their GP’s.

Anyway, thats the end of the health benefits eulogy. Apart from the fact that I am seriously considering augmenting my coaching and mentoring offerings with guided 3 /4 day walks. I think it could have a profound effect on any exec who needs to think his way out of a hole. I’ll save that for another blog though.

So…..

DAY 0.5 Getting there

We’d both made the brave decision not to avail ourselves of the services of the bag man. He’s the fellow who will come to your place of accommodation, pick up your Samsonite of really useful baggage and transport it to your next destination, all for around 8 quid a day.

So my mate dropped his car off at my place and with backpacks overflowing we set off to Grassington. Gary (my mountain goat friend) had approximately an hour to fend off all the usual “how can you go away with all this going on?” type emails and texts on his Blackberry before we hit the mobile flat zone known as the Yorkshire Dales. As I digested the information that he had been doing 18 mile bike rides a day for the last 3 months to get in the zone I pondered the wisdom of my training regime of around 4 walks during the same period as we approached Grassington. No worries! I had been training vigourously for the 26 named pubs we hit along the trail. So we agreed an early night and an early start was the right thing to do as Day 1 is one of the toughest days with 14 miles to do and a big climb and descent at the end of it to go through Littondale and then drop in to Buckden at the head of Wharfedale.

Problem was, it was Grassington’s annual music and Arts festival. There was a very passable soft rock band hitting the notes to Hotel California in the pub we were staying in (The Forresters Arms). Everyone seemed to be in a party mood………..so we joined in.

More on our tour tomorrow!!