This March, Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes for the United States, starting the time change 4 weeks early. Clocks will be set ahead one hour on the second Sunday of March instead of the current first Sunday of April. Clocks will be set back one hour on the first Sunday in November, rather than the last Sunday of October. This will make electronic clocks that had pre-programmed dates for adjusting to daylight saving time obsolete and will require updates to computer operating systems. The date for the end of daylight saving time has the effect of increasing evening light on October 31. This section of the act is controversial, primarily because there is doubt if daylight savings actually results in a net energy savings. The additional effort of changing quite possibly billions of clocks on embedded systems as well as enterprise servers may cause significant impact to the productivity of any region that adopts these changes.
To accommodate the DST change, most IT systems must be patched. Otherwise, timestamps will be off, and some applications my fail to work. For instance, if you synchronize your Windows Smartphone with Microsoft Exchange, and you want your calendar reminders to work, plan on applying patches or fixes to Windows XP, Windows 2003, Exchange 2003 & Windows Mobile. Otherwise, you may be late for that all-important TPS meeting.
Unfortunately, this change has not received the attention it deserves, so many IT shops have not yet started, and there are only roughly 20 days to get patches tested and deployed. Also, it is not enough to assume that if your servers have the correct time, your applications and databases will work. Some applications are “system time aware,” yet others require their own unique patches.
Finally, don’t forget firewalls, routers, switches, NTP appliances, time clocks, PBX systems, IVR/ACD systems, cell phones, PDAs, photo copiers, fax machines, and all the other devices on your network that recognize or require time/date to operate properly. All of these will likely need either patches or manual fixes to facilitate the change.
If you haven’t started yet, don’t wait. Compile a list of your time-dependant systems, applications, databases and devices. Prioritize the list based upon importance and impact if the device isn’t patched. Check the vendor’s website for fixing the problem. If you use outsourcers, such as hosting companies, application service providers (ASP), or payroll vendors, contact them and ask them to certify their readiness for the change. Create a plan and get it done. Hint: The fastest way to find vendor patches is with our old friend Google. Try this query: (site:vendorsite.com daylight saving time 2007).
Current YCG Clients on the COSM Service have already received the updates on your networked equipment.
Click the links below to make sure you have the Microsoft Update for you machine(s)
Preparing for Daylight Saving Time changes in 2007
You can also get the update by performing a Windows Update. The update is actually as of yet NOT a critical update. This update is located under the Software, Optional section. This section is located right under the critical updates on the left navigation pane.