Of course you don't feel like dealing with modernizing your IT organization. Who would? It sounds like a hideous task-especially if you've let it go for a while. There's so much to think about, and it seems like more technologies and more variations of those technologies pile on every day until the whole project starts looking insurmountable.

But you know you've got to do it. Otherwise the whole mess is just going to get out of control and you'll never be able to untangle it. So here's a great way to get started: Listen to what our friend* Robert Starmer of Kumulus Technologies has to say about IT modernization. His job as founding partner and cloud advisor is to help companies like yours sort through their options and figure out the best way to get where they need to go.

He'll frighten the daylights out of you at first, explaining the endless list of things you need to consider, from what your business needs are and what your developers know, to how your existing applications are written, and which technologies are best suited to help you move in the right direction. But hang in there, because things quickly get better. In no time, Robert is explaining the very real, very simple options for breaking a monolithic application into microservices, all while explaining the criteria you should consider before breaking up such an application in the first place. He also discusses where to start your transformation, how to change your company culture so that your new technologies are actually used, and which technologies in particular he is a big fan of. A few of the other things Robert touches on in this episode include:

• Why he thinks "NoOps" is ridiculous
• Why serverless is so popular
• The importance of a business-first strategy
• What you get (and do not get) by using container management tools
• Why the most successful moves to the cloud start at the C-level
• His Top 3 tips for companies tackling IT modernization at any level

To hear all of this in a much more detailed and interesting format, check out the full episode below and hear it from Robert himself. If you prefer audio-only, it's also available on iTunes and SoundCloud.

And if you'd like to check out past episodes of this podcast (we've got more than 50 of them!), just pop on over to the archive at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/cloud/podcasts.html. Really. Do it. There's some great stuff in there.

*Note: I'm using the term "friend" quite loosely here. I sincerely enjoyed speaking with Robert, but he is not affiliated with Cisco in any way, and he may or may not actually have promoted me to the "friend" category as quickly as I have promoted him.