Engineering Everquest

IEEE Spectrum takes a look at the hardware and networking software behind Everquest, the addictive multi-player online fantasy world/game: Sony runs the game on 1,500 servers (increasingly, blades), has developed its own virtualization software and built a network operations center to monitor it all:

... There are rows of flat monitors and lists of EverQuest world names projected on the wall: Morell Thule, Veeshan, The Nameless. There is a cushy couch against another wall, a couple of bottles of soda, and a few crumpled napkins.

The room has a college dorm all-nighter feel, and for good reason. Twenty-four hours per day, 365 days a year, the NOC is ground zero for Sony Online Entertainment's technical support. Gamers game around the clock, so Sony has to be ready to handle problems whenever they happen, and developing and maintaining a system to overcome the challenges is essential to the game's success. For now, all is well, but at any moment the crew might have to save a dying CPU in the Death Star or resurrect software that has been killed by bugs. ...

• Network Management
• Software
• Operating Systems