The Samba project developers have secured investments totaling 688 thousand euros from the Foundation St., established in Germany to support the growth of open digital infrastructure and ecosystems utilizing open source. The fund, funded by the Ministry of Economics and Protection of the German Climate, and overseen by the Federal Agency for subversive innovation Sprind, chose to invest in Sernet, the entity controlling the Samba trademark in Germany and responsible for developing the samba+ product for enterprises. The investment program spans 18 months, from September 1, 2024, to February 28, 2026.
Over the course of the 18 months, developers at Sernet will undertake 17 projects aimed at enhancing the capabilities of Samba. These projects will focus on improving security, scalability, and functionality, all in collaboration with the established processes of the Samba project. Some of the projects include ensuring the fault tolerance of SMB3 by enabling seamless transitioning to a backup server, extending UNIX support for SMB3, introducing SMB-Direct, and implementing productivity and security protocols like “SMB Over QUIC.”