As part of our “Experts Insights” conversations series, we are speaking with key recognised industry experts to seek their insights, knowledge, experience, and advice, on key business and technology themes and topics across a broad range of key industry and market sectors and segments.
This CEO conversation is with industry expert and thought leader, Craig S. Mullins, President & Principal Consultant at Mullins Consulting, Inc. (www.mullinsconsulting.com), which focuses on data strategy, data management, performance optimisation, and database administration. He is an in-demand analyst, author, and speaker, with has over three decades of experience in all facets of database systems development including DBA, creating and teaching database classes, systems analysis and design, data analysis, application development, performance management, and data modelling.
Craig has worked with IBM Db2 on the mainframe since Version 1 and has experience working with many other database technologies. IBM appointed Craig as a Gold Consultant for Db2 and as an IBM Champion for Data & AI. Craig was named as one of the Top 200 Thought Leaders in Big Data & Analytics by Analytics Week. Big Data Made Simple also named Craig one of their 200 Big Data thought leaders. And Redgate has named Craig as one of the 100 most influential in the database community.
A prolific writer and blogger, Craig having authored hundreds of articles for popular journals and websites, as well as multiple books on database performance and administration topics.
How did you come to choose a career in Data Management and Information Systems?
I have been interested in data and its management well before my career began. I guess it all started when I began using dBase II in high school to maintain a database of my record collection and I just kept on learning and branching out from there. In college the data management classes were by far my favourites and when I started an internship with US Steel my senior year, I quickly learned IMS and started coding COBOL apps accessing IMS data.
A little later, as a DBA at Mellon Bank, I jumped at the opportunity to learn Db2, and I’ve never looked back. By the way, today I still use that original dBase database, but I’ve converted it to Filemaker. And if you are interested, I currently have 15,854 records and CDs in my collection.
When did you decide to build your own business & what created that opportunity?
I had been toying with the idea of building my own consulting practice as early as the mid 1990s, but there were so many great opportunities in the industry back then that I never really started in earnest until the mid 2000s. Along the way I I have worked as a programmer, a DBA, a software executive, and an industry analyst at Gartner.
When one of the software companies I worked for reorganised, it presented a great opportunity to start up my independent practice. It was also fortuitous that around the same time the industry began to embrace data as a corporate asset, which paralleled well with my services.
You attend a lot of events in person, do you recommend your peers do the same?
Absolutely! The realm of software and IT is constantly evolving, with new technologies emerging all the time. As IT professionals it can be difficult to keep up with all of the latest trends and technologies that we need to know to do a credible job. For me, as a data guy, it is important to note that just about every new technology interacts with and requires data. So, to understand the latest and greatest state of the industry requires regular education, and that is where industry conferences come in.
Industry conferences are a great way to stay up to date on the latest trends in technology. You can learn about new products and services, hear from experts in the field, and network with other IT professionals. Additionally, industry conferences can help you to obtain hands-on experience with new tools and techniques with longer sessions and demos. And industry conferences can help you build your network.
I’d also be remiss if I did not mention the opportunity to create and deliver presentations at industry events. I have found that you sometimes learn more by presenting a session than you do by attending somebody else’s session. Not only do you have to prepare and ensure that you have knowledge about your topic, but you inevitably talk with the attendees and learn how others are doing things that you may not have considered before.
Is there a market or industry segment you enjoy working with more than others?
Well, data spans industries, and I have been able to work in multiple market segments because of that. Everything from manufacturing to banking to health care to government, and I find them all fascinating as long as I am working with data and database management systems.
You know, many of the same problems and data management issues are faced by organisations across all industries. Sure, there are nuances and differences in terms of how the issues are managed, and some industries have a more stringent focus on certain aspects (such as data privacy in health care or strict access control in government), but the I find the similarities are more than the differences.
What big trends do you think organisations should be gearing up for now?
The first and biggest trend that should be at the top of any organisation’s list these days is AI and finding ways to infuse current AI capabilities into your infrastructure. As AI capabilities like Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models, and Machine Learning, become more robust and capable, organisations that do not embrace and extend their existing capabilities with AI will fall behind.
But there are many other big trends that should not be ignored. Things like digital transformation, cloud computing, and big data analytics, although having been around for some time, are still nascent at many organisations and should still be on your radar, even if they are not talked about as often as they were a few years ago. On the other end of the spectrum is quantum computing, which will be impactful, but not quite yet.
But you still have to prepare. One consideration is quantum safe cryptography. Quantum computing will soon be able to rapidly decrypt public-key cryptography that relies upon mathematical problems too difficult for traditional computers to solve. That is, quantum computers will be able to decrypt most cryptographic schemes in use today.
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