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.

John tells me that the Junction Networks PSTN Gateway infrastructure is primarily built using OpenSER and FreeSwitch. They also use stripped down pieces of Asterisk in their OnSIP hosted VoIP service. I’ve been hearing more and more about FreeSwitch these days which is “reliable, stable, and efficient” says John. FreeSwitch is a fantastic piece of Open Source telephony software and one of the functions John says FreeSwitch is particularly good for is their conference bridging. Open Source telephony software is ideal for businesses and VoIP providers alike because not only do you have something which is highly customizable and malleable to your business processes, but it costs significantly less to implement, maintain, scale, and integrate with other apps.

Going Open Source is a smart move for any business because it might just be that competitive edge you need as a company. Junction Networks uses Open Source first because it does the job extremely well and second because it too gives them their competitive edge. “One of the benefits of using Open Source from a business perspective is that we avoid paying licensing fees. Instead, we get to pass these savings onto our customers which is why we’re the only hosted VoIP provider who does not charge a per seat/extension fee.” says John.

Why this is important to OS-VoIP

Most of us OS VoIP professionals spend the majority of our days trying to convince hard headed IT executives that Open Source VoIP solutions, like Asterisk, OpenSER, and FreeSwitch, ARE in fact ready for the enterprise. Whether you’re a sales person trying to sell OS VoIP to a CIO, or a Director of IT trying to convince a board, we all know what were up against – Open Source Racists!

An Open Source IP PBX (if implemented properly) will NOT be plagued with problems, it won’t crash constantly, you CAN get the same features-sometimes more, and NO Mr. CIO, you won’t lose your job…. infact if done properly, you just might get a bonus, a promotion, even a better job… plus I’ll write about you on OS-VoIP! It’s a win win.

The OS VoIP story we all know, a story also shared with thousands of small businesses, is that OS VoIP has penetrated a large portion of the SMB market as a cost effective, easy to use, and reliable IP PBX solution. You can’t look for a sub 50 seat phone system without finding something about Asterisk, Switchvox, Trixbox, Fonality, and some others. But…the story we don’t hear much about, and the story OS-VoIP is trying to tell is the use of Open Source telephony in the large enterprise market and OS VoIP’s ability to support user populations of 1K+.

The first hurdle here is that not everyone is willing to admit the use of Open Source telephony within their infrastructure, even if it works flawlessly. This is because Open Source for certain people still means ammeature, unrelaible, poorly supported, among other things. I know IT managers who use Open Source telephony within their infrastructure and won’t even tell their CIO because it’ll be met with the same prejudices that has plagued Open Source for the past decade. Many of these hurdles have been overcome by the 50%+ adoption rate of Linux within the enterprise which has done a world of good for OS in general, but OS telephony still requires a lot of extra legwork to convince executives on its ability to be reliable.

Open Source VoIP may not always be the best solution for a business, but its benefits, pros & cons should be evaluated against other large proprietary systems. OS VoIP is evolving so quickly that we’re beyond the point of viewing established Open Source applications as unreliable, the only “x” factor is in the reliable implementation of such a system but shame on you if you don’t evaluate an OS VoIP implementer just as throughouly as you would a proprietary VAR.

Junction Networks is one of the few phone companies who openly state that their telephony infrastructure is based on Open Source. This is why I’m writing about them. They’re a prime example of Open Source VoIP’s ability to be reliable as a carrier grade technology designed to support large user populations across disparate locations. Although Junction Networks won’t give me the number of extensions running on their system, they have 4,000 business customers. It would be safe to say that at bare minimum, Junction Networks must be running at least 10,000 extensions using Open Source which is a user population that rivals some of the largest corporate IP PBX systems.

And before anyone mentions it themselves, let me address call quality – All INTERNET BASED SIP PROVIDERS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO HAVE POOR VOICE QUALITY, not because of their network but because you can’t guarantee quality of service (not to be confused with QoS) over the internet. Not to say there aren’t crappy VoIP networks out there, because there are, but you know what I mean… hopefully.

So coming back to Microsoft, my hope is that since the largest technology company in the world has partnered with Junction Networks, they in-turn, whether intended or not, put their trust in Open Source’s ability to provide reliable service to Response Point customers. You might say “well Response Point is for small businesses” but that’s not the point. The point is that Junction Networks is proof that large user populations can be supported using Open Source VoIP technologies.

Special thanks to Junction Networks CTO John Riordan and Robert Wolpov for their time.