(System Independent Data Format) An international standard format for storing data along with its file system. When conceived by the SIDF Association in 1993, its primary purpose was to allow backup tapes created by one vendor to be readable by another vendor's software on another platform. Originating from Novell's Storage Management Services (SMS), SIDF is used with both tapes and disks. SIDF became an ECMA standard in 1994 and an ISO standard in 1996.