UTC is the so-called “universal coordinated time”. UTC was formerly referred to as “GMT” (Greenwich Mean Time) and is the basis of the international time zone system. For example, New York, USA is 5 hours behind UTC. So if it is 12 noon in New York, the UTC time is 5pm.
The MonitorWare line of products often uses UTC. UTC has the fast advantage of providing one consistent time notation, even if devices are across multiple time zones. This is extremely valuable if a centrel location is to consolidate events from senders in multiple time zones.
Using UTC might not be appropriate if a whole system is contained within a single time zone. As such, most time parameters inside the MonitorWare line of products can be configured to work with local time instead of UTC.