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Inside Xbox Live's Operations Center

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-a-bad-place-to-hang-out dept.

Cold Dawg writes "[H] Console takes an exclusive behind the scenes look at the Xbox Live Command Center with Jason Coon, Operations Program Manager for Xbox Live. Steve Lynch says, 'The Xbox Live Operations Center or "XOC" (pronounced zock) is where all the action is. The large room is literally wall to wall workstations and LCD monitors. There are several monitors attached to the wall at the front of the room that display all kinds of system information. There were also a lot of media carousels at one end of the room, each capable of holding 150 games. From what we saw, there was easily enough storage capacity to hold over 3,000 games.'"

15 comments

  1. Wow! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm really impressed by the control room. Oh, wait a minute. Those pictures are of the lobby and not the control room. Must be a slick operation that out rivals the Defense Department control rooms that they don't show pictures of their control. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if the control room was nothing more than two former game testers playing minesweeper while the server is on fire.

    1. Re:Wow! by MSFanBoi2 · · Score: 1

      When is the last time you saw a picture of Google's operation center or data center?

    2. Re:Wow! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      You mean the picture of rows and rows and rows of generic PC boxes where if one died it would not be worth the time and effort to replacement? I saw it in the Matrix. :P

    3. Re:Wow! by Ryan+Amos · · Score: 2, Informative

      Maybe because datacenters and control rooms are utilitarian structures that all generally look alike? A control center is generally a row or 2 of PCs with a projector at the front displaying a nagios/EMC monitoring page purely to look busy (all real alerts are sent to pagers or blackberrys.) If you don't plan on showing it off to the public, I'm guessing it looks a lot like any other office (cubes and meeting rooms.)

      A datacenter is almost always a large room full of black cabinets. Yawn, nothing to see there, the only variations are whether they use overhead cabling racks or raised floors. They can be impressive when inside of them, if only for the deafening sound of thousands of rack servers.

  2. Er. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take any pictures beyond the lobby area.


    So, why is that? Are Microsoft worried people might see all the flying chair damage?

  3. Wow. They have "monitors"... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1
    There are several monitors attached to the wall at the front of the room that display all kinds of system information.
    Wow. What a unique and interesting data center.
  4. Pffff... by CaseM · · Score: 1

    I've been there before, and it's really not all that impressive. I even snapped a picture or two (on the sly, of course).

    1. Re:Pffff... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      I thought my home network was bad. :P

  5. Wrong site? by pdbaby · · Score: 1

    Boy, did the submitter get the wrong site ;-)

    Sounds fun... pity it didn't really go into their architecture

    --
    Global symbol "$deity" requires explicit package name at line 2. - If only $scripture started "use strict;"
  6. neat..errr by robpoe · · Score: 1

    Why do all the computer companies answer the "How many servers do you run?" question with "I can't tell you, that's classified."

    People want to be impressed.

    People aren't impressed when you show them a single mid-tower server on the floor/shelf .. because they had a tower under their desk that was 2x that 10 years ago..

    They're impressed when you show them a rack full of 1 or 2U servers, or many many racks of them...
    Or you tell them "Yeah, we have around 2900 servers running this thing"...

    --
    = Grow a brain...
    1. Re:neat..errr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the case of a Microsoft data center, the question is "What percent of the time do servers spend rebooting?"

  7. Is it like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stargate Command?

    1. Re:Is it like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Is it like Stargate Command
      Yes. Except without the stargate, the blast doors, the mountain, SG 1-n, USAF or eyeshadow wearing toughguys.

      They do have c:\command.com though.

  8. What a super idea! by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 1
    There were also a lot of media carousels at one end of the room, each capable of holding 150 games. From what we saw, there was easily enough storage capacity to hold over 3,000 games.
    Are we bragging about shelf space in our server rooms, now? You know, I could fit over 6,000 Xbox games in my spare bathroom, and have enough room left over for several monitors and a keyboard or two.

    PING [H] Console: Come over and visit my spare bathroom. Just jiggle the handle if the cistern makes that noise, and put up a new roll if you finish the old one. Oh, and if you could take care of the catbox while you're there, that'd be super.
    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  9. Whoa! by ineedbettername · · Score: 1

    They actually FIX things there?!