Today Nortel announced its acquisition of Pingtel, an Open Source IP PBX software company. This is some pretty big freakin news for OS VoIP… it’s BIG.. it’s HUGE.. it’s really BIG.. and here’s why…
This acquisition marks a milestone for OS VoIP as a technology because it A) shows that Open Source VoIP is a viable business model and B) it reaffirms that Open Source VoIP is finally established enough, reliable enough, and mainstream enough to warrant acceptance by one of the largest proprietary communications manufacturers around. Continue →
Every year InfoWorld releases their Best of Open Source Awards 2008 or BOSSIE for short. It’s pretty much a who’s who in the world of Open Source software. I would consider many of these applications as “safe/I won’t lose my job” Open Source options.
Every single CIO/CTO on this planet should use this list as a go-to point whenever in search of a particular software solution.
There are still people in this world who think Open Source is a load of rubbish and that it’ll never catch on and will never displace larger proprietary solutions. Although this is true for PLENTY of open source projects, that is NOT the case with most of the established open source solutions listed in this blog. It is true, I’ll admit, the open source software below may not perfectly fit your organizational needs, it may not be sexy, and it could require a more technical IT department to implement…… although, at the same time it may not be any of these. But, what Open Source will almost ALWAYS be is more flexible and more cost effective.
When evaluating software solutions, most companies like to put together a selection of at least 3 possible options; 3 software solutions selected from the many, all 3 of which will ultimately be pitted against one another in a battle to the death within a stadium full of IT managers, C-level executives, and vendors. I’ve always thought companies should build a boxing ring in their office just to let potential vendors duke it out with the winner getting the contract. Just think, this probably wasn’t too far from the truth a few hundred years ago plus there would have been the whole impending death thing. But seriously, although this post isn’t really dedicated to OS VoIP (yes Asterisk did come out on top for VoIP), I do want to encourage technology executives to search for possible Open Source solutions whenever evaluating software for your company. If you turn a blind eye to Open Source, you just might be missing out on something that could save your IT budget millions and you’d never know if you didn’t look. So check these out and it’ll be like winning the lottery should you find an Open Source application that DOES meet your technology requirements.
The BOSSIE wards are divided up into these 8 categories. And the winners are…..
Continue →
This week I’m using some link bait which discusses a few of the differences between Asterisk and FreeSWITCH. David Greenfield wrote a short blog post discussing one particular case study where FreeSWITCH was used over Asterisk. I wouldn’t say I’m all that crazy-go-nuts over the post but the topic is worth additional discussion since FreeSWITCH and Asterisk are both fantastic pieces of OS telephony software each of which are strong in their own right. This is in no way a comprehensive comparison between the two, but it’s a start.
I think an even better comparison between Asterisk and Freeswitch was written by Anders Brownworth which looks at the differences between the two from a slightly more technical overview. As head of R&D for Bandwidth.com, I’m glad to hear Anders is playing with Open Source software like Asterisk and FreeSWITCH. My last post about Junction Networks discussed the use of OS software in a carrier network, it would be good news for OS-VoIP to learn that a big player like Bandwidth.com also uses OS software somewhere within their infrastructure, and where (they probably do already but won’t admit it like most carriers). Perhaps Mr. Brownworth can shed some light on the topic for another OS-VoIP article???
Most people will agree that Asterisk in its current state has more feature capabilities than FreeSWITCH in its current state. What largely differentiates FreeSWITCH features and Asterisk features is how they operate as you begin to scale a system and the way in which those features and dial plans are managed.
I’m admittedly more biased towards Asterisk because it’s been around longer and well, because my company is a Digium partner, but I’m also not one to ignore new software even if it feels like sleeping on the other side of the bed. That’s the problem with these large stagnant corporate IT infrastructures, it’s that the people in charge of them have largely relied on their proprietary vendors for information about new technology, and have become too comfortable with relying on these folks for the right information. It takes a true IT leader to step out of their comfort zone and see whether there’s a better way of doing things, something other than that which has been spoon fed to them by vendors. A very simple way to prevent this type of comfortable stagnation is to simply read a few select magazines, and/or blogs on a regular basis; just to keep you up to speed with everything. Throw a wrench into the machine; rustle some vendor feathers; go ahead and see what’s new, source some technology solutions from competitors of existing vendors… there’s little to lose- either you find something better or your vendor freaks out enough to offer better pricing, it’s a win win!
Back to FreeSWITCH and Asterisk. Continue →
I just got some tutorial chapters from PackT Publishing’s AsteriskNOW book by Nir Simionovich. Although most OS-VoIP readers aren’t developers, and the ones who are probably rarely use AsteriskNOW, I figured there’s no harm in putting these up even if only a few people find the chapters useful.
Here are the two chapters extracted from the PackT AsteriskNOW book:
Chapter 5 - Tentacles of the PBX — The Calling Rules Tables
Chapter 7 - “For Annoyance, Press 1″ — Voice Menus and IVR
It seems that AsteriskNOW has largely been neglected by Digium ever since they purchased Switchvox. AsteriskNOW was Digium’s first attempt to an easy to use administrative interface to the Asterisk software but once Switchvox came into the picture it seems their engineering resources went away from the AsteriskNOW UI and into the Switchvox UI. This move obviously makes business sense since Switchvox is a real revenue generator for Digium yet I hope they soon re-direct some focus towards the eventual development of a comprehensive OS UI for Asterisk.
To date, there still does not exist (to my knowledge) a suitable Open Source Asterisk UI which I’d feel comfortable implementing in a large scale IP PBX. There are certainly plenty of Asterisk UI flavors but most have been created as a licensed product. In a perfect Wallgreens world, Digium or some other knight in shining armor will engineer an open source UI for administration and a UI for users; one which is reliable regardless of scale or clustering, and one which is Open Source. This would certainly result in the eventual nail in the coffin for many proprietary IP PBX systems. So far the closest I’ve found is Druid by Voiceroute which is still a work in progress.
OS-VoIP is moving up in the world, or so I like to think. OS-VoIP will now be featured in AllTop’s VoIP section as a premium VoIP news resource. I say premium because it sounds better, and because I hear AllTop is selective in the news they serve which means you don’t have to worry about sifting through junk. Special thanks to Guy Kawasaki for realizing the awesomeness of the OS-VoIP world. I really don’t know how many people use AllTop for their cup-a-joe news yet on a single page and, with a single glance, one can get a snapshot of some very reputable VoIP news/blog sites and see what’s going on in the overall VoIP world. You’ll find OS-VoIP.com news right between VoIP News and TMCNET-News. So if you’re like me and get a million Google Alerts for every VoIP related keyword under the sun, perhaps AllTop is what you’ve been looking for, then again, maybe not; I’ll still use Google Alerts to tell me how popular I am… or lack there of.
Well… the title of this post is a little deceiving, Microsoft isn’t really “being Open”, but they’re openly (and officially) working with people who are, like Junction Networks… open by association Microsoft is!
When a company as big as Microsoft decides to form a partnership with a VoIP provider who’s network is openly, and almost entirely open source, it’s a big deal for people like us and another win for OS VoIP. I’m going to talk a little bit about this whole Junction Networks and Microsoft thing, then go off on a tangent…
Response Point and Junction Networks
Last Tuesday July 8th, it was announced that Microsoft had partnered with Junction Networks as a recommended service provider for their small business VoIP solution called Response Point which comes already pre-configured for a free trial with Junction Networks. Recent Microsoft news normally makes me throw up a little in my mouth but this got me thinking.
Response Point is truly a small business phone system, so much so you’ll be able to pick one up at your local Costco! My goal here is not to sell people on Response Point, but to “point” out that the approach Microsoft has taken with this IP PBX is not a whole lot different than how vendors piece together an Open Source IP PBX. OS software like Asterisk is typically installed on a combination of COTS (commercial off the shelf) hardware and similarly Response Point is nothing more than Microsoft software installed mostly using your own hardware. A business can utilize an existing Windows PC, you can piggyback off an existing LAN including your switches, and the SIP IP phones are from a collection of companies including Aastra (an Asterisk favorite), D-link, or Quanta Syspine (for operator functionality).
Because Response Point is particularly designed to use internet based VoIP service, there’s no need for telephony specific interface cards. So for internet based VoIP service, there are three companies whom Microsoft is sending their Response Point customers to- New Global Telecom, Cbeyond, and our friends Junction Networks. Out of these three, Junction Networks is the only company who automatically provisions new accounts online, so no dealing with over zealous sales reps, no waiting for proposals, and overall much less provisioning headaches.
Junction Networks is a leading internet based SIP/IAX trunking provider who additionally sell a hosted VoIP solution called OnSIP. The reason why I’m even writing about this on OS-VoIP is because Junction Networks’ entire infrastructure is almost completely built using Open Source software. I had a chance to speak with Junction Networks CTO John Riordan who was a good sport and gave me some insight into this Microsoft partnership and the “Open Source’ness” of Junction Networks’ infrastructure. Continue →
This is a question I hear constantly and the answer typically relies on three things - cost, business size, and required functionality. Most small-mid sized businesses exploring the move to a new phone system will consider the ups and downs between purchasing a premise based IP PBX or a hosted VoIP solution. These days I think purchasing an old TDM phone system instead of an IP based system is about as smart as buying a VHS player so lets assume that most businesses won’t go this route. Cost, reliability, scalability, and functionality each vary depending on which solution your business chooses.
In true OS-VoIP fashion, I’ll make the comparison between hosted VoIP and an Open Source IP PBX because there are some unique advantages an OS IP PBX has over hosted VoIP. I’ve seen plenty of companies decided that hosted VoIP made more sense than a proprietary premise based IP PBX but once you throw an OS IP PBX into the mix, the metrics can change quite dramatically.
Cost:
A customer premise OS IP PBX will require an upfront capital expense plus the additional cost of yearly maintenance which can vary in price depending on the level of maintenance required. Although an OS IP PBX does not hold the same costly licensing fees associated with proprietary systems, the capital expense is still not one to overlook. Depending on the type of OS IP PBX, you’ll probably discover a savings of 30%-50% compared to its proprietary counterpart.
By using a hosted VoIP service you’ll avoid this capital investment but may soon find that the operating expense usually exceeds the capital cost of a customer premise OS IP PBX in as little as 2 years. Because an OS IP PBX can be 50% lower in cost, your ROI time frame is half that of a proprietary system. It’s obviously much easier for a business to stomach a 2yr ROI than a 4-5yr ROI compared to what you would have paid for hosted services. The same reason why you wouldn’t rent a car for 2 years is exactly why you wouldn’t “rent” your IP PBX. There is still the cost of telecom services which are required with a premise based system but at least you have the flexibility of using whichever telco service you happen to find as the most cost effective and reliable- this may include POTS, T1, SIP, or some other internet based VoIP service (which I recommend against for a businesses).
I will argue that under most circumstances, a business under 25 seats will probably find more cost advantages for hosted VoIP than in purchasing an OS IP PBX simply because the investment required for a premise based IP PBX is usually more than a small business can afford. When it comes to larger organizations who focus largely on the TCO, a premise based OS IP PBX will win hands down in cost when you spread that cost out over a few years.
Hosted VoIP solutions are usually based on flat fees costing anywhere from $39 to $69 per month per station depending on the features required. Most hosted VoIP providers also require that you purchase your own IP phones which typically start at $100 for a decent device.
Hosted VoIP providers typically have a few pricing tiers which are based on features plus you may find an a la carte selection of advanced features you can purchase on a per/mth basis. Sometimes a business will be forced to purchase a higher tiered hosted VoIP product simply because they needed just 1 advanced feature which is not included in the lower tier. Some smaller hosted VoIP providers may be flexible enough to work out special pricing but this is not the norm.
OS IP PBX system on the other hand come standard with a full set of features that require no additional fee beyond the cost of the system itself. More advanced features and functionality may be an additional cost, but this cost need only be made once because there aren’t any ongoing licensing fees associated with an Open Source system. When you add a feature to a proprietary system, you may be required to pay a fee for every extension on that system, this is not the case for an OS IP PBX and therefore advanced features a far more affordable for larger systems.
At some point I’ll be writing a full article on the squillions of Open Source VoIP apps out there but until I find the time to do so, I want to share with you all this list called 74 Open Source VoIP Apps & Resource.
Here at OS-VoIP, one of the things I’m trying to do is help individuals differentiate between Open Source VoIP apps that are ready for the enterprise and which ones are not. A lot of the misconceptions in Open Source VoIP stems from software which hasn’t been finely tuned enough to be enterprise ready or from implementors who just don’t know what the hell they’re doing.
Many of the OS Apps in this list of 74 are already widely deployed within the communication infrastructures of enterprises and carriers- like Asterisk and OpenSER. Others have a much lower adoption rate and still require a lot more development until they’re ready for enterprise adoption.
This isn’t a perfect world and hence some functionality required in a phone system is sometimes best left to proprietary software (for now). The good news is that the most important part of a communications system, the brains of a PBX, is perfectly satisfied by OS software like Asterisk and OpenSER. Proprietary software has it’s place in delivering added features and functionality to a system who’s core is built from Open Source software. Functionality like speech to text for example is (for now) best left to licensed software like LumenVox or using a proprietary contact center solution like Aspect on-top of Asterisk.
With the near limitless capabilities of software like Asterisk combined with an ever growing list of Open Source VoIP apps, the difficult part is to know which apps may compromise the stability of the system as a whole and which ones will best complement the functionality of your IP PBX. Either way there’s no question in my mind that the tools and applications already exist to turn Open Source VoIP into an IP communication system that rivals the likes of large proprietary systems by the likes of Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel.
For those of you in the US, have a great 4th of July weekend!
Junction Networks is a better than average hosted VoIP provider and yesterday launched a new partner program which warrants a mention at OS-VoIP since many of our readers just might be interested.
Junction Networks’ OnSIP hosted VoIP product is almost entirely engineered using open source software like Asterisk. This is a testament to Asterisk and Open Source’s ability to reliably support over 4,000 users dispersed across hundreds of locations. Big enterprises take note - Asterisk IS suitable for supporting large user populations if engineered properly.
There is some criteria to becoming a Junction Networks agent. I just hope it’s more difficult than becoming a Fonality reseller.
Those interested in becoming authorized agents for OnSIP must demonstrate technical competence and an ability to sell, implement and manage Internet-based services.
Junction Networks is one of the few hosted VoIP providers who do not charge per seat or extension. Instead they have various plans ranging from $39.95 - $199.95/month which includes unlimited extensions, users, and inter-office calling. The trade off is that although you can have unlimited users, you’re still going to pay 2.9cents for every minute on the phone.
The second annual Digium Innovation Award is coming up folks! The deadline for your submissions is August 1st so don’t forget.
This award was created last year to showcase all the “innovative” applications for which Asterisk can be used. Those eligible for the award are all Digium|Asterisk customers and partners world-wide with solutions that are live or in production. This is nice and broad so if you’re working on something that warrants an “innovative”or “never done before” title, then I encourage you to make your submission.
Winners from each category will be announced at AstriCon 2008, in Arizona. Aside from the recognition Digium will give you via numerous press releases, you’ll be blogged like crazy by people like me, plus you’ll be able to brag about being one of the who’s who in the Asterisk world.
The four categories are:
- Pioneer Award: Most innovative implementation
- Big Biz Asterisk: Largest enterprise class installation
- ROI: Best measurable ROI from implementing Asterisk based solution
- Inside Out Award: Best use of Asterisk in a business outside of telecommunications
For more information and your own application, visit:
http://www.digium.com/en/company/awards/innovation.php
Consider this your friendly reminder from OS-VoIP to make your submission.
I stumbled upon this article on eWeek which was written by Sangoma CEO, David Mandelstam. This short paper discusses a few things that I consistently have to re-iterate to every client when selling an Asterisk based PBX. Hopefully now this article should save me some time.
It is articles like these that truly help out the sales process because they provide the consumer with a no-bull-shit explanation about things they’ll need to consider when purchasing an OS PBX. I think those who understand the technology intricacies are always the best equipped to help consumers make an educated decision about their purchase but unfortunately most sales tools are a product of marketing departments and therefore lack some of the necessary yet less-than-glossy truths behind Open Source telephony. One example is the widely marketed myth that there’s no problem converging voice and data over the same network when all us telephony geeks know that this is typically a last resort for any mid sized organization who requires a stable and secure network.
So anyway, the key points of Davids article are:
> Understand what Open Source means.
> Be sure your VAR knows what they’re doing.
> Don’t skimp on hardware.
> Be careful about being your own OS/VoIP/Linux savvy expert.
On the topic of useful tools to help businesses understand what they’re getting themselves into when purchasing an IP PBX, take a look at this Baseline Mag article by David Strom titled “Is Your Network ready for VoIP?“. There’s lots of good points in here, including why you should re-think converging your voice and data network.
Presence is one of those nifty little features that just totally impresses the heck out of most users… and it’s entirely possible with Asterisk+bluetooth. Presence is the ability for the IP PBX to recognize when someone’s in or out of the office. When you’re in the office, the IP PBX will route calls to your desk phone, and when you’re out of the office calls are automatically routed to your cell…its like magic.
Bluetooth is the primary technology that makes all this possible since most cell phones these days have bluetooth, plus it’s the perfect proximity based technology that just happen to be in our cell phones; ideal for presence. Here’s an article by Little Nerds which discusses how to get presence up and running specifically with Asterisk. Continue →
So I just heard from my Polycom guy today that as of yesterday the Polycom IP670 phone is available for order. I had a few things to say about this phone in a previous blog here, but now that it’s available I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we get one to play with at which point you’ll see a full review.
I’m quite surprised that the release of this phone has gone by almost entirely unnoticed. The fact that I’ve heard very little about this phone leads me to believe that there isn’t whole lot to this phone other than a color display. It seems like Polycom is really pushing theirApplications for their SoundPoint IP line which I haven’t found to be all that groundbreaking other than providing a more intuitive phone based interface for things like conferencing… nothing groundbreaking.
This is what I call groundbreaking interface> 
not this>
You’ll probably see me write a blog reviewing these new Applications as there’s a lot more to talk about here than the IP670. Has anyone been working much with the Polycom SoundPoint Applications? Would love to hear your thoughts. Continue →
