About
Julian Mullins
Independent platform engineer. Dorset.
The story
I started working with databases in 1988, when that meant dBase III+ and Clipper. In 1990 I was running Minix, because Linux didn't exist yet. Linus Torvalds released version 0.01 the following year.
My first client website went live in 1996. I still manage it. Dalaric Limited has been the company behind that work since 2009.
Since 2000 I've been the consultant behind a corporate training platform that has served more than 150,000 students. I have run its hosting from the start and done much of its development, through every version since. I don't own that platform, my client does. I'm the person who keeps it running.
The tools now are AWS and Cloudflare instead of a modem and a Unix box. The job is the same one it always was: understand the system properly, build it so it doesn't fall over, and be there when something changes.
Capability
What I'm actually good at
Infrastructure and operations
AWS multi-server estates, Cloudflare, Linux administration, database performance and tuning, backup and disaster recovery, security hardening, cost reduction.
Data and integration
MySQL, MariaDB and Aurora. PHP. REST and SOAP APIs. Migrations, including out of things nobody wants to touch.
Day to day
- AWS
- Cloudflare
- Linux
- MySQL
- MariaDB
- Aurora
- PHP
- GridPane
- Vultr
- DigitalOcean
- Patchstack
- Redis
- Postmark
Dalaric is a Nominet member, and every domain I register is in your name rather than mine.
The boundary
What I'm not
I'm not a designer.
I know what makes a website work, and I have opinions about it that are worth listening to. But I'm not the person to make something look exceptional, and I'll tell you so rather than take the money. When a project needs that, I bring in a designer I trust and I'll say up front that's what I'm doing.
I'm also not an agency, a hosting reseller competing on price, or a consultant who hands over a deck and leaves.
The question nobody asks
What happens if I'm not there?
Everybody thinks it and almost nobody asks, so here's the answer without being asked.
I'm one person. However good that is on the days it works, you need to not be stranded on the day it doesn't. What that looks like depends on what you buy from me, so:
- Work on your own systems stays yours. Your cloud accounts, your servers, your DNS and your domain are in your name. I have access rather than ownership, and you can take it away whenever you like. The work is documented, the documentation lives with you rather than with me, and infrastructure is defined as code where it can be, so somebody who isn't me can rebuild it.
- A website, email or hosting from Dalaric runs on Dalaric's accounts, but your domain is registered in your name from the first day. Your site, your mail and your content can be handed to you, or to another provider, whenever you ask rather than only on the way out.
- You can leave whenever you want, and I'll hand over cleanly and help the next person. No hostage-taking, no proprietary configuration, no invoice for the privilege.
- If Dalaric ever stops, there's a written plan for handing every client over or winding down properly, with notice, so nobody is left without their website or email.
I'd rather promise you less and have all of it be true. One part doesn't rest on my word at all: a .uk or .co.uk domain in your name can be moved by you, through Nominet, without my agreement. How leaving works, and the notice I give if I ever end an arrangement, are set out in the terms.
What I don't sell is an open-ended commitment: a retainer of named days, a standing block of my week, or a very large build handed over in one piece. I sell work that is scoped, quoted and scheduled, and I would rather turn something down than take it on and do it badly. WordPress care plans work differently and are monitored around the clock.
Ownership
Your systems belong to you, and I'll be precise about which ones
When I work on your infrastructure, it is genuinely yours. Your AWS account, your Cloudflare, your servers, your domain, your data, all in your name. I have access rather than ownership and you can revoke it this afternoon.
When you buy hosting from me, the server is mine. Your WordPress site sits on a machine I run alongside other clients, which is exactly why it costs £25 a month rather than several hundred. Yours in that arrangement are your domain, your content, your database and your files, and you can have a full export of all of it any time you ask rather than only on the way out.
I say this explicitly because a great many small companies have discovered the hard way that they don't own their own website, can't move their own domain, and can't get a password out of the person who set it up. If that's happened to you, I'm sorry, and it's usually recoverable.
Where I am
Dorset, and wherever you are
I'm based in Dorset and work with clients wherever they are. Almost everything I do is remote and always has been.
Dalaric Limited is registered in England and Wales, company number 06995683. Registered office: 4 South Terrace, South Street, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1DE.
I'm on LinkedIn as Julian Mullins, and the company is there as Dalaric.