James Rowland-Jones is a Principal Program Manager for Microsoft. He is passionate about delivering highly scalable solutions that are creative, simple and elegant in their design. James specializes in big data warehouse solutions such as Microsoft Analytics Platform System (APS), Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Hadoop ecosystems. James is a keen advocate for the SQL Server community; both internationally and in the UK. He has previously served on the Board of Directors for PASS and helped organise SQLBits. James was awarded Microsoft’s MVP accreditation from 2008 - 2015 for his services to the community. This talk has taken place during SQL Bits conference in London, on 23rd February 2018 (Friday). Interviewers: Kamil Nowinski & Damian Widera (remotely). Do you want to know why James has moved to Seattle and started working for Microsoft? How he started his career in IT and what is important in your work? Which big conference is his baby and how much his community involvement has affected his professional life? You will find out all the answers in the following talk.