XRootD: the importance of R5

<!--HTML-->Being the foundation and main component of numerous solutions employed within the WLCG collaboration, most notably the EOS storage system, XRootD grew into one of the most important storage technologies in the High Energy Physics (HEP) community. With the upcoming major release (5.0.0), the XRootD framework will not only bring functional enhancements and a TLS based, secure version of the xroot/root data access protocol, but also introduce architectural improvements that set the stage for new exciting developments. In this contribution we explain the xroots/roots protocol mechanics and focus on the implementation of the encryption component engineered to ensure low latencies and high throughput. We also give an overview of other developments finalized in release 5.0.0 and we discuss future directions of the project.