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IBM Smart Market embraces Asterisk… building your IP PBX becomes childs play

Aaron Rosenthal — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:55:49 +0000

Well last week marked the end of Astricon 2009 where a myriad of VoIP and Open Source companies came together to showcase new products, new solutions, and make big (and sometimes small) announcements. One of my favorites and more notable announcements was between Digium/Asterisk and IBM.

You can read some specifics here, but in short IBM has brought Asterisk into its Smart Market program. IBM’s Smart Market is a marketplace for applications designed or tweaked to operate on IBM’s hardware, specifically the IBM Smart Cube. It’s kinda like the Apple App Store, take the iPhone for example which is a “ready to rock” computer with a whole slew (70,000+) of applications designed to work perfectly (supposedly) on the iPhone… all purchased via the App Store. The IBM Smart Market and the Smart Cube hardware is much like the same.

Organizations with a tendency towards Open Source or just plain ole cost savings can now simply purchase their Smart Cube from IBM, download a customized version of Asterisk designed to be managed via the Smart Desk management dashboard, and BAM… with some configuration you’ve got yourself an IP PBX. Additionally… here’s my favorite part, support is handled directly by IBM! Anyone who has worked with IBM knows that their support is one of IBM’s strong points and exactly why I’m extremely excited to see IBM extending that support to Asterisk. Support is one of those areas which I think has stifled some of Asterisk’s growth primarily because the quality of support provided by the myriad of different Asterisk re-sellers and even Digium itself has been so varied in its quality that its quite hard to truly define a guaranteed level of support when it comes to Asterisk. Of course I’m rather biased but I like to think my company has some of the best Asterisk support around, but that just can’t be said about everyone :-)

Now all this product launch hoopla isn’t what really interests me… well yes IBM is providing Asterisk support = awesome…. and yes Asterisk is tweaked to be managed via the Smart Cube dashboard = actually kinda big…. but what I’m particularly excited about is the continued traction Asterisk is gaining within the world of telephony. Acceptance by a computing titan like IBM is just one more badge on it’s sleeve of awesomeness. I myself am thrilled how common the term “Asterisk” has become in almost every discussion pertaining to telephony and IP PBX solutions. There are still some haters out there but those who criticize the technology haven’t really taken the time to fully understand it, while those who have, become its greatest advocates.

I used to be surprised when people said they were actually familiar with Asterisk, now it seems to be one of the first things someone will Google when buying an IP PBX. Now I say this… but I also say it knowing that it applies primarily to the SMB market in which Asterisk has seen the largest amount of growth… but my only interest in the SMB market is its use as a case study to prove to larger enterprises that Asterisk based solutions fit business of any size and application and should always be evaluated right alongside the big players. We’re not quite there yet, 1000+ Asterisk deployments still remain few and far between, but as Digium and Asterisk start partnering with companies like IBM, and when companies like IBM are willing to stake their reputation on supporting Open Source software like Asterisk, I think it validates Asterisk’s future trajectory as being a respected IP PBX solution amongst not only SMB’s but organizations of any size.

But enough with my soap boxing… you probably would like to know about pricing.
There are two options for purchasing Asterisk for the Smart Cube:

$2,000 for 20 simultaneous calls.
$4,000 for 40 simultaneous calls.

Check it out!

By Aaron Rosenthal

Nortel buys Open Source IP PBX company Pingtel

Aaron Rosenthal — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:22:08 +0000

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.

This move by Nortel is ballsy for their industry but mostly because they’re just one of the first. It also plays well into their plan to become a software centric company. At OS VoIP we’ve always said that proprietary companies like Cisco, Nortel, and Avaya will need to adjust their business to stay competitive in a world of Open Source VoIP, and guess what, Nortel did. Since Nortel’s image has been a few PR campaigns behind Cisco and Avaya, a move like this is exactly what they need to re-vamp their image as a cutting edge communications company, plus it makes sense considering the “open” direction the entire technology industry is heading. From the quote below, you’ll see that Nortel has positioned more than one chess piece towards being “open”.

Over a year ago Nortel joined the open source community established by SIPfoundry** as an active contributor to the sipXecs open source project (led by Pingtel Corp), providing more than 300 new applications and features to date. The acquisition of Pingtel Corp by Nortel will further accelerate the development of a global open source ecosystem and reinforce Nortel’s direction and leadership in the development of interoperable and open unified communications solutions.

So on this day, August 13th 2008, mark Nortel down as the first large proprietary telephony company to take the leap into offering their own Open Source telephony solution. I don’t expect it to be very long for other proprietary businesses to follow Nortel’s lead but I don’t expect Cisco or Avaya to be scrambling for their cash in an effort to puchase an Open Source VoIP company. What I do suspect is that these proprietary companies will either begin to Open Source parts of their own software (doubtful), or partner with an Open Source VoIP company like Digium.

3Com partnered with Digium to re-sell their SMB solutions, Dell partnered with Fonality/Trixbox for their own small business solutions, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for more proprietary vendors to take the same approach.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think this Nortel/Pingtel acquisition is great for the overall evolution of Open Source VoIP and its acceptance in the market place, but it’s not like Nortel is all of a sudden going to be the next big Open Source VoIP company. There are too many established players like Digium, Switchvox, Fonality, and many more for Nortel’s newfound openess to eat away much of their business. If anyone should be threatened by this move it’s Microsoft. Microsoft’s Office Communications Server ‘07 is a software based unified communications solution which although sexy, costs a queens dowry and doesn’t play very well with others. With an Open Source UC solution offered by a billion dollar corporation, Nortel should be able to (with some development and good marketing) compete rather well against Microsoft’s OCS.

So if you take anything from this blog, I’m not saying you should go run off to a Nortel vendor for your next OS VoIP system, because you should run off to me :) but what you should do is realize there are plenty of reasons why an Open Source IP PBX or UC solution might suite your company just as well as any proprietary option. Nortel obviously thought Pingtel’s Open Source UC solution was good enough to buy the whole damn company, so why wouldn’t your organization at least look at Open Source VoIP as an option for your next IP PBX.

OS-VoIP – now a permanent fixture at AllTop

Aaron Rosenthal — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:49:47 +0000

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.

Junction Networks helps Microsoft be a little more “Open”

Aaron Rosenthal — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:38:21 +0000

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.

Junction Networks launches partner program

Aaron Rosenthal — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:29:14 +0000

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.

New SalesForce contact center telephony integration

Aaron Rosenthal — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:42:07 +0000

I’m a huge Open Source fan and as much as I like using my SugarCRM, SalesForce has some great stuff (and obviously their software extends well beyond just CRM). SalesForce is arguably the driver behind the SaaS bandwagon and I really like what they’re doing…. even though it’s all proprietary. I recently got to demo what SalesForce is calling their “Dream Call Center Desktop”. What I really liked was the native telephony integration which includes an integrated browser based softphone with call control capabilities, screen pops, and integration with all the modules which come as part of SalesForce Service&Support.

I probably wouldn’t go so far as to say this is the right contact center solution for a large contact center because the telephony capabilities are rather basic…. think regular softphone simplicity. A large contact center is probably using something like Aspect or Genesys contact center solutions or Aheeva which is the growing Asterisk contact center solution. What I like about the SalesForce Call Center Desktop is that it provides a rather simple integration of telephony in with the functionality of the SalesForce software.

It looks like the only standard telephony integration is with Cisco. What I would like to see is for someone to integrate an Asterisk softphone into this SalesForce Service&Support module just like the Cisco softphone. This would be a major step for Asterisk since SalesForce is such a universally adopted business service. I know lots of mid sized businesses who use SalesForce but can’t afford Cisco so if Asterisk was able to integrate it would be a very nice out-of-the-box capability and very compelling for a company already using SalesForce.

So…. I wonder who’s going to figure out how to get Asterisk integrated with SalesForce Service&Support? Anyone? Anyone?