Java DateFormat for UTC : <p>I have a DateFormat like</p>

<pre><code>DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS");
</code></pre>

<p>I have a date like this:</p>

<pre><code>2017-02-23T11:00:04.072625
</code></pre>

<p>This "date" is a UTC date (Z is null). This parses fine. However, it seems to be interpreted as the timezone of the machine. So, my machine is EST, this ends up as </p>

<pre><code>2017-02-23T11:00:04.072625-0500
</code></pre>

<p>Which is wrong.  I can explicitly set the timezone with like</p>

<pre><code>format.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
</code></pre>

<p>But if the time came in a different zone in the future, that would not be right either.</p>

<p>If I add a "Z" or "z" to the SimpleDateFormat string, this fails to parse.</p>

<p>Any ideas on how to handle this correctly?</p>
