The Hindu Business Line : Bangalore key to Yahoo!'s 24x7

THEIR eyes keep flicking between the wall-sized screen and the TV monitor where the channel is set to current news. A block turns red and suddenly the atmosphere is tense . Phone calls are made; hurriedly they troubleshoot and verify the stability of servers. They are on the edge until the crisis is over and normalcy is restored.

They are Yahoo!'s NOC (network operation centre) engineers, who are responsible for the uninterrupted operation of Yahoo!'s online services globally. The 425 million Yahoo! users across the globe may not be aware that Bangalore has such an important role to play. There are two main NOCs, one in California and the other in Bangalore. The Indian NOC takes over from the American centre during the day, to take advantage of the time difference.

These service engineers work in nine-hour shifts, mostly without breaks, to ensure that Yahoo! is available 24x7. They monitor the news so that they are aware of when surfers will rush to Yahoo!'s news' Web site and can take measures to prevent a downtime.

Company sources said that at any given time, seven to ten engineers supervise the operations. It is a credit to these engineers that Yahoo! has not seen a shut down or a lag in accessing services.

These highly qualified specialists are indeed Yahoo!'s `behind the scene' heroes. They are highly trained and are capable of dealing with emergencies across the world.

"Service engineers undertake mission critical decisions daily. They are responsible across domains. The maturity required in managing a service requires experience," avers Mr Viswanthan K., CIO, Yahoo! Bangalore.

The service division of Yahoo! is responsible for site operation, such as monitoring and maintaining servers and storage. It also works with the product development division in making Web sites more user-friendly.