Asterisk still #1 in OS VoIP for “InfoWorld’s Bossie Awards 2008″
August 11th, 2008 | Published in open source | 7 Comments
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…..
Collaboration
Social networking: Elgg
Wiki: Media Wiki
Mail and Calendar: Scalix
Remote Control: VNC & Chicken of the VNC
Blog Publishing: WordPress
Developer Tools
Object Database: Db40
Version Control: Git
Web Client Library: HttpClient
Parallel Programming: Intel Threaded Building Blocks
Business rule management system: JBoss Drools
Rich Internet Applications: Open Flex
JavaScript Framework: Prototype
Web Services Test: soapUI
Enterprise Applications
Content Management: Alfresco
Enterprise Resource Planning: Compiere
Project Management: dotProject
Application Monitoring: Hyperic HQ
Business Process Management: Intalio BPM
Enterprise Portal: Liferay Portal
e-Commerce: Magento eCommerce
Business Intelligence: Pentaho Open BI Suite
Customer Relationship Management: SugarCRM
Reporting: Jasper Reports
Networking
IP Telephony: Asterisk
Log File Analyzer: AWStats
Wifi Network Scanner: InSSIDer
Server Monitoring: Nagios
Wireless Network Interface: NDISwrapper
Router, Firewall, and VPN: Vyatta
VoIP Monitoring: WireShark
Network Monitoring: Zenoss Core
Platforms and Middleware
Server Operating System: CentOS
Enterprise Service Bus: JBoss ESB
Database: MySQL
MySQL Administration: phpMy Admin
Small-Footprint OS: Puppy Linux
Data Migration: Jitterbit
Desktop Operating System: Ubuntu
Desktop Virtualization: VirtualBox
Server Virtualization: Xen
Productivity Applications
Sound Editing: Audacity
3D Modeling: Blender
Web Browser: Firefox
Image Editing: Gimp
Productivity Suite: OpenOffice.org
PDF Creation: PDFCreator
Security
Penetration Toolkit: Metasploit Framework
Windows Password Cracker: Ophcrack
Network Firewall: SmoothWall Express
Network Intrusion Detection: Snort with BASE
Security Log Analysis: Splunk
Disk Encryption: TrueCrypt
Gateway Security: Untangle Gateway Platform
Storage
Network Backup: Amanda
Storage Server: Free NAS
Online Backup: Free Online Backup
File Management: WinMerge
Disk Monitoring: smartmontools
Storage Administration: StorageIM
Well isn’t that a nice long list of Open Source software. Yes there’s a few there which are little babies and still have plenty of maturing to do, but others in this list are already mature and reputable OS projects like Asterisk (of course), SugarCRM, OpenOffice.org, MySQL, CentOS, and many others.
If I could add anything else to this list, I think Zimbra-Collaboration should get a mention along with Teamwork for project management.
August 12th, 2008at 2:50 am(#)
This list is impressive. Enterprise open source software are flourishing in many fields. Many enterprise proprietary solutions have their open source alternatives ( see a quite huge list there: ://www.opensource-it.com/content/open-source-alternatives-proprietary-software .It is really exciting to see pro solutions like Asterisk or Drupal supported by a company AND a community. But I would recommend be very careful with open source solutions backed only by a software vendor, and not a community. If this is a tactical choice no problem, but if you want to massively deploy on the long run, I would recommend to stick to solution that have at least community driven.
August 14th, 2008at 4:20 pm(#)
I somehow doubt any consideration was made for all the many other open source telephony apps out there. I am more than certain that the people handing out these awards have not even actually evaluated Asterisk or any of the rest for that mater and therefore I question their integrity. Give the other apps a chance.
FreeSWITCH http://www.freeswitch.org
sipX http://sipx-wiki.calivia.com/index.php/SipX#sipX_-_The_SIP_PBX_for_Linux
CallWeaver http://www.callweaver.org
YATE http://yate.null.ro/pmwiki/
Bayonne http://www.gnu.org/software/bayonne/
OpenSER http://www.openser.org/
August 14th, 2008at 4:54 pm(#)
Well I do agree with Anthony that software like OpenSER and FreeSWITCH deserve some love, but there’s no denying Asterisk is the most established and mature Open Source VoIP software of the bunch. Asterisk might not be perfect but out of all the OS VoIP solutions, Asterisk has the largest user base, the most contributing developers, and Asterisk also has a multi-million dollar company, Digium, backing the project.
Support is one of the biggest concerns for a company when it comes to adopting Open Source software (and yes this concern is sometimes unfounded), so it makes sense that they’ll choose the OS projects that come from organizations who can offer ample support. It is my hope that OS VoIP software like FreeSWITCH and OpenSER continue to get recognition, maybe some funding, so as to grow into more profitable and mature projects. I understand your frustration Anthony with Asterisk for stealing the spotlight from FreeSWITCH, but Asterisk is just the older popular kid. You should be thrilled that in its 1.0.1 stage, FreeSWITCH is already up there with the likes of Asterisk and OpenSER.
Also, the people who selected the BOISSE winners were editors, analysts, and reviewers…. no engineers. Maybe next year InfoWorld can get some engineering judges.
August 15th, 2008at 12:36 pm(#)
That’s probably true but don’t forget I probably helped Asterisk win some of those previous awards with all the work I did on the project. http://www.cluecon.com/anthm.html I am not saying Asterisk does not deserve consideration for the award and I am certainly not saying FreeSWITCH should win, that’s not up to me, but I do think judging an open source project on how commercialized it is rather than it’s merits is somewhat counter-intuitive to the point of community driven software and all the software I listed deserve a hand for their efforts.
In fact if anyone should get an award, my vote goes to the developers of OpenH323 and OPAL for creating the entire concept of open source VoIP 10 years ago http://www.voxgratia.org/
We are all getting lazy here in this arena by simply borrowing tag lines from Google searches rather than doing any actual investigation which automatically gives software projects like asterisk the ability to spend it’s entire budget on marketing instead of software development.
Yes, we can do bigger and better things with a company backing us but i will not allow it to happen unless the community and open source spirit is preserved. (That’s the spirit of business and commercialism tempered with the understanding of the power open source software has to benefit the entire sector.)
I just hope that being mature does not imply I need to be exactly like Asterisk because we already have an Asterisk. My goal was to do something different……..
August 18th, 2008at 7:16 pm(#)
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September 18th, 2008at 1:38 am(#)
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September 18th, 2008at 2:18 pm(#)
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