Not that I think it effects your point, but just off the top of my head:<p><i>System clock will take a larger step than usual. It won&#x27;t go backwards.</i><p>Assumes that checkpoint and restore to a previous time won&#x27;t happen.<p><i>NTP only drifts the clock (under normal operation).</i><p>Unless it&#x27;s a system like this.  Note that this was pulled at about 1pm EST.<p><pre><code>  Waiting for clock tick...
  ...got clock tick
  Time read from Hardware Clock: 2016&#x2F;02&#x2F;09 22:36:50
  Hw clock time : 2016&#x2F;02&#x2F;09 22:36:50 = 1455057410 seconds since 1969
  Tue 09 Feb 2016 02:36:50 PM PST  -1.038948 seconds
</code></pre>
<i>Under normal operation it will only move forward</i><p>&#x27;Under normal operation&#x27; is not really a high bar for distributed systems.  After all, the network is reliable &#x27;under normal operation&#x27; too.