When Windows 7 beta was made available to MSDN subscribers in January of this year, the resulting demand overwhelmed Microsoft's servers. The net result was that it delayed the launch by a day and it made Microsoft look foolish. 

After some diagnosis, the problem was found to be linked directly to excessive fragmentation levels in the SQL Server database. The number of requests to the MSDN and TechNet databases in less than an hour was more than a normal week's worth of traffic. The diagram below is from an internal Microsoft memo that shows processor usage over time. When the fragmentation began to worsen, CPU utilization spiked.

In order to fix the problem, indexes were defragged and the processor utilization dropped back to normal levels. Supposedly the Microsoft DBAs are now monitoring the status of the database every 30 minutes and rebuild the indexes every evening. Anyway, I just goes to show you that even Microsoft DBAs have bad days. Hopefully, the did not sit on the phone for a long time with premier support...LOL