sambaXP 2015: A look into the future of Samba

From May 19th to 21st 2015 100 users and developers met in Goettingen for the 14th Samba eXPerience (sambaXP) - they turned the conference into a meeting place for the international Samba scene. The sambaXP gathered a variety of 28 sessions, including SMB3 classics as well as topics on cloud infrastructures and self testing. Microsoft, IBM, Google and Zentyal sponsored the event; attendees from Amazon, RedHat and Suse also followed SerNets invitation to this years sambaXP.

Exchange is what marks the essential part of sambaXP, SerNet CEO Johannes Loxen emphasizes. "Despite numerous communication channels, it is still important for the developers to meet in person. That is why we created the conference in 2002. And that hasn't changed since then." Only the Storage Developer Conference (SDC) presents a similar possibility and is held annually in autumn in Santa Clara, California.

The presentations and live demos  provided participants with an insight into the current work and research of Samba colleagues. And thus also in what others are planning with or for Samba. "This likewise calibration is important for the further development of Samba", says Loxen. It is equally important for a company like Microsoft to drive this adjustment ahead and thus to ensure that - in  their own interest - different operating systems and server infrastructures will be working together even better. 

Highlights on the schedule certainly were the advancement of the SMB3 protocol from Microsoft and the challenges entailing from this for Samba. Among others speaking on SMB3 topics was Tom Talpey (Architect at Microsoft). Jeremy Allison (Google, representative for Chairman John Terpstra) and Volker Lendecke (SerNet co-founder and member of the international Samba Team) also hit some serious tones regarding the future of the Samba: For example, the question how young developers could be attracted to the project. On the other side Marc Muehlfeld presented the results to his Samba user survey: he drew attention to what companies as users of Samba expect and how the software could be made more attractive for them.

SerNet, founded here itself 18 years ago, chose Goettingen for the conference since the start in 2002. Loxen: "Not only are our headquarters situated in here." Also with the university and numerous spin-offs Goettingen proves to be a big player in the open source area; an event like the sambaXP stresses this even more.

Recordings and presentation slides of the 14th samba eXPerience will be available soon at sambaXP.org. The Call for Papers for the 15th sambaXP traditionally will start right before Christmas.