MSN Ops - how we manage 1000's of servers 24/7

In this interview, I sat down with Jon Wong, a lead systems engineer in the msn.com group. Jon’s team looks after over 700 websites, running on over a 1000 servers. He has to manage over 50 updates to the site content every week. Oh, and just like you, he has to deal with patch Tuesdays.
Jon takes some time in this interview to tell us how they do it. He mentions some of the usual suspects, like MOM.
He gives us a tour of his office, where we learn a couple of interesting things, like how his office setup has improved his kite surfing, and how air drumming in the car doesn’t translate to video game skills.
Jon also somehow manages to use the phrase “less metal, more rock” without referring to music.