...You can get access to a cifs/smb file simply by using Paths.get(new URI("smb://hostname/share/filename")) and manipulate the returned Path with the utility class java.nio.file.Files.
So you can use one API to access local and remote files with your java application.
The jCIFS config can be set with the newFileSystem(URI uri, Map<String, ?> env) method of the CIFSFileSystemProvider class.