Training Instructor, on 15 October 2013 - 01:21 AM, said:
Because getting up early once every two weeks is so much to ask of a content delivery and service provider company. I know that the local hipsters would label them tryhards, and they'd never be able to show their face around the organic freetrade coffee house again.
I worked split shifts, morning and evenings, for three years as an English teacher, because that's when the customers had time for classes, and they're the ones who provided my very nice paychecks. I didn't particularly like that schedule, but at the end of the day it made the most sense for the customers, so I worked it.
Patching 2-3 hours earlier isn't about whether or not it's inconvenient for PGI. It's about whether or not their patch times are inconvenient for big numbers of paying customers.
But if you had customers around the world, there would always be someone (or even "big numbers" of them) that wanted you to teach them when you wanted to sleep. In short, with a world-wide audience, you'd never get to sleep, ever.
There simply is no time where shutting down the servers for patching doesn't inconvenience someone, somewhere. Now if PGI was a larger company I'd suggest they'd go with a rolling patch schedule (placing patch downtime in three or four time zones on a rolling schedule), but seeing as it probably is the same few staff that need to be on hand for every patch, it's better to do it at the beginning of
their day.
And yes, I'm in the EU, so patches always come in my prime time (about 7-10 pm).