| spamhotmail@yahoo.com 2006-11-19, 8:10 pm |
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http://console.hardocp.com/article....CxoY29uc29sZQ==
2:10 PM CST
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Date:
Monday , October 30, 2006Category:
Xbox 360Manufacturers:
MicrosoftAuthor:
Steve LynchEditor:
Kyle Bennett
Inside The Xbox Live Operations Center
[H] Console takes an exclusive behind the scenes look at the Xbox Live
Command Center with Jason Coon, Operations Program Manager for Xbox
Live.
[H] Console recently visited the lovely state of Washington for an
exclusive tour of the Xbox Live Operations Center. This will be the
first time since the Xbox 360 has launched that anyone has had a look
behind the scenes at Microsoft's Xbox Live Operations Center (XOC).
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Our host for the tour was Jason Coon, a long time [H]'er and a
Operations Program Manager for Xbox Live. The Xbox Live facilities are
located away from the main Microsoft campus in a nondescript three
story building with no outside markings other than a small Xbox logo on
the front door of the lobby.
The lobby is very well laid out with a relaxed feel to it. There is a
small waiting area with vending machines that provide free refreshments
for visitors. There is a long, stylish reception desk where two lovely
young ladies were stationed.
Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take any pictures beyond the
lobby area. When we inquired as to why we were unable to photograph the
actual operations center, a small team of men in camouflage fatigues
repelled in through the windows and confiscated our cameras. O.K. that
last part didn't happen but it would've been cool if it did.
Apparently there is a "no camera" policy in effect that applies to
everyone, even employees.
The next floor is home to the Xbox Live operations center, various
other offices and the Xbox Live servers. The top floor is home to rows
upon rows of servers. We are not sure how many but saying there were
"a lot" is an understatement.
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.
As our tour came to an end it was obvious that there would be no way to
keep track of everything we learned in such a short period of time.
Trying to remember who did what and what each department was
responsible for would be almost impossible so we turned to our favorite
Xbox Live Operations Program Manager for a complete breakdown of the
Xbox Live Operations Center.
What follows is the most in-depth coverage of the Xbox Live service to
date and the first time anyone has explored the inner workings of the
Xbox Live service since the launch of the Xbox 360.
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Before we get started, what is in that cool trophy cabinet?
Lots of stuff Things like industry awards (did you know Xbox Live won
an Emmy last year? ) plus pieces of hardware that represent
manufacturing milestones, such at the first Xbox1 motherboard, the
10,000,000th Xbox controller, and things like the first production Xbox
360 that was signed by the entire team (including me).
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So who are you and what do you do?
My name is Jason Coon, my Gamertag is JethroXP. I'm one of four
Operations Program Managers on the Xbox Live Team. OPMs as we are
called have operational responsibility for various features of Xbox
Live. That means we work with the Feature Team (the guys who dream up
cool new things for Xbox Live) to ensure that the features they want to
implement are operationally supportable, and the Development Team (the
guys to write the code to create the features) to ensure that they are
writing efficient and sustainable code that behaves well, logs it's
activity, and doesn't break anything else, and finally with the Test
Team (the guys who test what the devs created) to ensure that the
features work as expected and perform well under stress load. We then
plan and execute the deployment of those features to the Production
service working with our Systems Engineers and our Xbox Operations
Center. And finally, we are responsible for ensuring that these
features continue to perform well for our users, and so whenever there
is a problem, we are called in to drive the investigation and problem
resolution.
The features that I'm responsible for are Billing and Marketplace.
This covers account creation, subscriptions, MS Points, and content
downloads. Whenever you see Press Releases that comment on how many
downloads we've had, or how many users we have, I'm usually the guy
providing that data to our Marketing and PR teams. Also, if you've
ever redeemed one of those 25-digit codes for MS Points, an Xbox Live
Subscription, a 48 hour Trial Offer, or Downloadable Content, I'm the
guy who actually loads all those codes onto our service. I'm also
active in the Xbox Live forums where I try to help users who have
billing and account trouble.
How long have you been with Microsoft?
Over five years. I started in Early 2001 working on Hotmail at
Microsoft's Silicon Valley Campus. I transferred to Xbox Live (and to
the Redmond, WA area) early in 2004.
A typical day is?
Anything but typical I am very much interrupt driven. I'm usually
online from home by about 7:30am, checking to see if any problems
occurring overnight, or if any hot issues are being escalated. I'm
usually in the office by 10:00am and juggling several asks from the
Feature, Dev, and Test teams. We rely on email pretty heavily, and on a
typical day I'll receive about 300-400 email messages, and none of
that is spam. From my office (and home as well) I'm able to connect
to the servers in any of our Test and Development environments, as well
as our Production environment. I am logged into various servers in our
Production environment virtually all day, every day. I've got four
Xbox consoles in my office, 2 Xbox1 consoles (one retail, one Dev kit)
and 2 Xbox 360 consoles (one retail, one Dev kit). I also have a nice
comfy couch in my office so that when I'm "testing" I can do it
in as close approximation to real users as possible. I use the retail
kits for validating Production functionality and for troubleshooting
problems that users report. I use the Dev Kits for connecting into our
Development environments to test how new features are behaving.
Typical workstation consists of?
I've got my Laptop docked and connected to a 22'' CRT (soon to be
a pair of 20'' LCDs) and on a KVM I've got two other PCs that I
use to connect to our development and Production environments. I've
got a 20'' TV (not HDTV) and a switch box that I use to connect my
two Xbox1 consoles and my two Xbox360 consoles.
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