Re: Moving to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

Um.... small problem. You announce a major change like this 2 days
before it's scheduled to happen? I mean I realize this is an alpha/beta
product, but still I think it could have been slightly better
coordinated. :)

Azure Services Platform Team wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Currently, the time zone within Windows Azure is Pacific Standard Time
> (PST). Soon, we will be migrating to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
> This is potentially a breaking change for applications which rely on
> local time.
>
> *When will we make the change?*
> We will start rolling out this change starting Sunday, March 8 at 10:00
> AM GMT.
>
> *Why are we doing this?*
> Windows Azure is a global service. To ensure that applications behave
> the same way regardless of their physical location, it's important that
> Windows Azure have a consistent time zone across all geographies. UTC is
> a natural choice given our global customer base, and UTC is not subject
> to potentially disruptive changes in Daylight Savings Time.
>
> *What's the potential impact to you?*
> If your application running in Windows Azure relies on local time, you
> will be impacted by the migration to UTC. Here are a few examples of
> potential issues:
>
> * Gaps may occur in event logs if local timestamps are used.
> * User interfaces that depend on local timestamps may show different
> results.
> * Local timestamps stored by your application may be interpreted
> differently after the changeover.
>
> Many applications have already been designed to rely only on UTC time.
> These applications should be unaffected.
>
> *Questions or concerns?*
> Please don't hesitate to contact us on the Windows Azure Blog
> <http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsazure> or discuss this on the Windows
> Azure Forum
> <http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsazure/threads>.
>
>
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--
Charles N Wyble charles@thewybles.com
(818)280-7059 http://charlesnw.blogspot.com
CTO SocalWiFI.net