After over two decades in tech. I have learned there are three things you never, ever, ever want to mess with short of research or a group of PhD’s:
- date
- time
- cryptography
But here we are. AWS adding custom time zones. I think Corey Quinn said it best:
RDS Custom for SQL Server now supports Local Time Zones – No. Absolutely not. NO. There is one true timezone for servers and databases, and it’s UTC. It’s a one-way door that you don’t realize you’re passing through and then you spend decades unpacking the mess. Google learned this with “Google Standard Time.” Yes, yes, “most things never need to transcend multiple timezones” and that’s correct right up until suddenly they do. Display whatever timezone you like at the presentation layer, but the data layer should store time in UTC, and optionally a timezone offset.
– [Last Week in AWS] Issue #330: EC2’s Weird Flex
Please, heed this warning. Keep your SQL in UTC, alter timezone at the presentation layer.
You have been warned.
