HDF^® supports n-dimensional datasets and each element in the dataset may itself be a complex object.

HDF^® is portable, with no vendor lock-in, and is a self-describing file format, meaning everything all data and metadata can be passed along in one file.

HDF^® is a software library that runs on a range of computational platforms, from laptops to massively parallel systems, and implements a high-level API with C, C++, Fortran 90, and Java interfaces. HDF has a large ecosystem with 700+ Github projects.

HDF^® is high-performance I/O with a rich set of integrated performance features that allow for access time and storage space optimizations.

There is no limit on the number or size of data objects in the collection, giving great flexibility for big data.

HDF5^® allows you to keep the metadata with the data, streamlining data lifecycles and pipelines.