The HDF Group

What The HDF Group does

The HDF Group is an Illinois-incorporated non-profit organization headquartered in Champaign, founded in 2006, that develops and maintains the HDF5 technology suite — an open-source data model, library, and file format for storing and managing large and complex scientific and engineering datasets. The company's core products include the HDF5 Library (C/Fortran/Java APIs with compression, chunking, and SWMR support), HDFView (a Java-based graphical browser/editor), the Highly Scalable Data Service (HSDS) for cloud-native REST access over object storage, the legacy HDF4 library, and the HDF5/JSON specification for JSON-based interoperability. Adjacent offerings include Cloud-Optimized HDF5 (COHDF) configurations for S3/Azure cost efficiency and the emerging Agentic HDF5 project, which uses AI agents and MCP tools to lower the barrier for domain scientists.

The organization operates a hybrid open-source/commercial model: HDF5 itself is distributed free of charge under open-source licensing, while revenue is generated from priority support subscriptions, professional training (instructor-led and self-paced), consulting, cloud deployment services, data conversion services, enterprise licensing, and tax-deductible donations (including GitHub Sponsors). Go-to-market is community-led and product-led, with global self-serve distribution via direct downloads, GitHub, and package managers (pip, conda), complemented by direct enterprise engagement for paid services. Customer segments span scientific research (physics, astronomy, climate, genomics), engineering and manufacturing, AI/ML and data science, government space programs (e.g., NASA orbital data archives), and software developers integrating HDF5 into applications.

The HDF Group has positioned itself as the long-term steward of a format with 25+ years of accumulated scientific data, and is currently executing a strategic expansion into AI/ML tooling and cloud-native deployments to maintain relevance as scientific computing environments evolve.

Name

The HDF Group

Legal name

The HDF Group

Website

https://hdfgroup.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The HDF Group is a Champaign, Illinois-based non-profit that develops and maintains the open-source HDF5 data format and supporting technology suite, serving the global scientific research, engineering, government space, and AI/ML communities with storage and access tools for large complex datasets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Data Management Software

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Scientific Data Management & Data Platforms (SDMS/Data Lakehouse for R&D) (HLAGAJAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data Platform (Unified Data & Analytics) Suites (HDAEABAD), Data Platforms & Modern Data Stack Services (Lakehouse, DW, MDM) (BPAEAHAC)

Keywords

• Scientific data management
• HDF5 file format
• Data storage libraries
• Cloud data services
• Open source software

Headquarters

HQ city

Champaign

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Open Source Software Distribution: Core HDF5 software is distributed free of charge as open-source. The non-profit mission ensures equitable access to science and engineering data.
2. Priority Support Subscriptions: Fee-based support tiers providing SLA-backed technical assistance, priority bug resolution, and dedicated support channels for mission-critical deployments.
3. Professional Training: Instructor-led and self-paced training courses on HDF5 development, administration, and best practices. Offered both in-person and via virtual sessions.
4. HDF5 Consulting Services: Custom consulting engagements for architecture guidance, data migration, performance optimization, and integration support for enterprise HDF5 implementations.
5. HDF5 Cloud Services: Cloud-based HDF5 solutions including managed HSDS deployments, cloud-optimized data conversions, and architecture consulting for cloud-native HDF5 implementations.
6. Donations and Sponsorships: Tax-deductible donations from individuals and organizations supporting the non-profit mission, plus GitHub Sponsors program for ongoing financial support.
7. Licensing (Enterprise): Enterprise license arrangements for organizations requiring commercial support terms beyond open-source GPL licensing options.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The HDF Group develops and maintains the HDF5 technology suite — an open-source data model, library, and file format for storing and managing large and complex scientific data — and complements it with paid professional services including Priority Support subscriptions, Training, Consulting, Cloud deployment (HSDS), Data Conversion, and AI/ML integration services for scientific and engineering organizations worldwide.

Product overview

The HDF Group provides an open-source data management technology suite centered on the HDF5 format, which has been in use for over 25 years. The core product portfolio includes the HDF5 Library (the foundational data model and library), HDF5 Server/HSDS (REST API service for cloud-native access), HDF View (graphical browser and editor), and HDF4 Library (legacy support). The suite is complemented by HDF5/JSON tools for JSON-based representation, and the offering extends through professional services including Priority Support, Training, Consulting, Cloud deployment, Data Conversion, and AI/ML integration services. The group also maintains a strong community engagement through weekly 'Call the Doctor' sessions and GitHub-based collaborative development. Agentic HDF5 represents an emerging AI-powered extension using autonomous agents to assist scientists.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• HDF5: The primary HDF data format and library technology suite maintained by The HDF Group.
• HDF4
• HDFView
• HSDS (Highly Scalable Data Service)
• Agentic HDF5
• HDF5/JSON
• Cloud-Optimized HDF5 (COHDF)

Products and services

• HDF5 Library

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability4 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• GitHubcoreTechnology or IntegrationGitHub hosts The HDF Group's open-source repositories including HDF5 source code, h5json tools, tutorials, and documentation. The HDF Group participates in GitHub Sponsors program for receiving donations. GitHub Codespaces integration enables zero-install HDF5 learning environments.
• University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe HDF Group is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, just north of the University of Illinois campus. The proximity suggests historical ties and potential collaboration with the university.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services)coreTechnology or IntegrationHSDS (Highly Scalable Data Service) is optimized for AWS S3 object storage. The HDF Group provides documentation for deploying HSDS on AWS, including AWS Lambda integration, Kubernetes on AWS, and Azure configurations.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Zarr (open-source community): Zarr is a cloud-native chunked array storage format gaining adoption in scientific computing as an HDF5 alternative. It targets the same large-array use cases as HDF5 but with a design optimized for object storage (S3, GCS), making it a direct emerging competitor in scientific and ML data workflows.
• Dremio: Dremio provides a data lakehouse platform with Apache Arrow-based query acceleration. It targets similar analytical workloads where HDF5 is used for large dataset management, positioning itself as a SQL-accessible alternative to scientific data formats.

Direct peers

• Unidata (UCAR): Unidata develops and maintains NetCDF, the closest direct peer to HDF5 for scientific array data storage. Both are community-funded projects serving atmospheric, oceanographic, and geoscience communities with self-describing data formats, and they compete for the same scientific data management workloads.
• TileDB Inc. TileDB provides an open-source array database and cloud-native data format targeting scientific and enterprise workloads. Like HDF5, it handles multi-dimensional arrays with compression and chunking, but is designed cloud-first and positions itself as a modern alternative to HDF5 for genomics, geospatial, and biomedical data.

Others

• Apache Software Foundation (Arrow/Parquet): Apache Arrow and Parquet are columnar data formats widely used in analytics and ML pipelines. While optimized for tabular rather than array workloads, they compete with HDF5/JSON for tabular scientific data and are increasingly integrated into scientific Python tooling.
• Anaconda: Anaconda distributes Python and R data science packages, including h5py which provides Pythonic HDF5 access. While not a direct competitor, Anaconda is a key distribution and ecosystem channel for HDF5 adoption in the scientific Python community.
• Blosc / blosc2 (NumFOCUS): Blosc provides the compression library used within HDF5 and offers complementary chunked, compressed array storage technology. It is a closely related ecosystem component serving the same scientific data compression and high-performance I/O use cases.

Broad incumbents

• Databricks: Databricks is a broad data lakehouse platform supporting Delta Lake and Parquet for analytical workloads that overlap with HDF5's multidimensional data use cases. It competes indirectly by offering a managed alternative for organizations evaluating data platforms for scientific and engineering pipelines.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hdf5
• GitHubgithub.com/HDFGroup
• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=S74Kc8QYDac
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-hdf-group

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The HDF Group