Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

Open Source

Digium's Mark Spencer on Growing Up

September 11, 2007

Mark Spencer is founder of Digium and creator of Asterisk.   Spencer delivered a keynote speech last night entitled, Mysterious Keynote, in which he spoke about the changes at Digium, and how Digium is growing up.   He cited major changes such as new management team, a new facility, and a new focus on broader customers and increasing the channel.   Of course, Spencer being Spencer, he quickly dismissed Digium’s transition to “adulthood” with an “Okay. But not completely.”   Truth be told, Spencer did come across as a more serious, more mature business leader than the quirky offbeat open source evangelist that he’s better known as.   He spoke about Unified Communications as a hot trend.   “Amazingly,” he said “it seems that people think it’s all new, but as most people understand it, UC has been around for a long time.”   Spencer believes UC encompasses how one could use communication to change people’s business process.   Spencer cited an interesting example of an outfit called Botanicalls. This NYU project essentially devised a system whereby your plants can call you when they need water or if they’ve been over watered, etc… He mentioned an initiative called QueueGames, which is essentially a trivia game callers can play while on hold. The point Spencer was driving home is that even silly concepts such as these serve to get people thinking about the possibilities of communications. Initiatives such as this serve to expand the definition of UC.   He mentioned the evolution in the open source world, where things have gone from a simple “good versus evil” debate (open source vs.

Digium Nabs Switchvox

September 27, 2007

Tom Keating reports on Digium’s acquisition of Switchvox and highlights Mark Spencer’s comments that Digium plans to take some of the proprietary SwitchVox code and offer it back out to the community.   I was on the call with Tom when Spencer and Bill Miller shared the news. I see this news as underscoring Digium’s stated mission to make Asterisk easy to use and expand the company’s reach to new customers across the globe through a growing channel.   SwitchVox brings to Digium over 1,400 existing customers. These customers absolutely love the Switchvox GUI and the ability it gives them to manage their own phone systems. Switchvox, which was founded in 2003, offers a rich feature set for the SMB market or for enterprises with distributed offices.   Said Miller, “Open source is taking over the SMB world.”   Certainly with this announcement, Digium is doing their part to bring simple, functional open source telephony solutions to that market.   Financial terms were not disclosed.    

Fonality's FtOCC Certification Hits the Road!

September 28, 2007

  Ok, while I don’t imagine I’ll ever be voted “most likely to install an open source PBX for his cousin’s small business” I do have at least a basic appreciation of why being certified to do so might be a worthwhile endeavor.   Fresh off the heels of a successful stint at ITEXPO, Fonality is talking their trixbox training to the people. With three distinct certification tracks (administrator, engineer, and technician) under the Fonality trixbox Open Communication Certification (FtOCC) banner, there is something for everyone.   The FtOCC (pronounced “F-talk”) road show will be traveling to the following cities around the world: London, England; Boston, MA; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Toronto, Ontario; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Dallas, TX; Atlanta, GA.   To see a list of when FtOCC will be visiting a city near you, click here.   The best part is, I’m happy to offer the readers of my blog a special $50 discountif they sign up for the FtOCC training course.   So if you want to learn the ins and outs of trixbox Pro and CE, and save 50 bucks while you are at it, be sure to follow this link to register! And if anyone asks, tell them the VoIP Authority sent ya!     Here’s some more info on the FtOCC training:   FtOCC Administrator (trixbox CE & Pro) FtOCC Administrator is a three-day course designed to teach the basics of trixbox installation and administration. Taught by Kerry Garrison, trixbox Community Director, with support from Andrew Gillis, trixbox Founder, FtOCC Admin is a great opportunity to roll up your sleeves and learn the ins and outs of trixbox Pro and CE.

Digium Offers SMBs A Free Edition of Switchvox

October 31, 2007

Not wasting any time when it comes to leveraging their recent acquisition of Switchvox, Digium today announced the availability of Switchvox Free Edition.   According to Digium VP, Bill Miller, the solution will be available for download from Digium’s Web site, starting immediately.   The company also announced the re-launch of its partner program today.   I have a full write-up here.

Digium Hits Milestone

December 19, 2007

Digium, has announced a major milestone — the one millionth download of Asterisk in 2007!   The company issued a release today touting their achievements over the past year, including “new executive appointments, industry awards, strategic partnerships and acquisitions aimed at further advancing the company’s presence in the small-to-medium-sized (SMB) VoIP market.”
Congrats to the team in Huntsville!   For more information, check out Digium’s news page.

Early Open Source Action at ITEXPO!

January 22, 2008

PIKA Technologies Inc., announced that its PIKA for Asterisk family of analog and digital boards is now compatible with Fonality’s trixbox CE.   This announcement comes in advance of PIKA’s participation in Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO’s Open Source Pavilion in Miami, Florida, which begins tomorrow.   The PIKA for Asterisk suite comprises a range of hardware and software designed to support applications built on the open-source Asterisk platform. These building blocks are designed to provide cost-effective, reliable network connectivity to bridge between legacy networks and Asterisk-based IP telephony applications.   So come on down to ITEXPO’s exhibit hall, which is set to open at 6pm tomorrow evening (that’s Wednesday January 23rd) and check out the Open Source Pavilion, located at the front end of aisles 700–900.   I look forward to seeing you there!  

More Open Source Action at ITEXPO

January 23, 2008

Dell has selected Fonality as a go-to-market partner for offering VoIP phone systems to SMB customers.   According to the Fonality “CEO/Janitor’s Blog”   Dell spent 2007 scouring the market for telephony partners to serve its customer base. They were looking for two different types: an enterprise-focused solution for their larger customers and a low-cost / high performance solution for their SMB customers — one that could be self-managed. Dell has selected Fonality for the latter.   This news serves to validate the legitimacy of Open Source solutions and Asterisk-based IP telephony solutions in particular.   Fonality is exhibiting at ITEXPO, which starts today. So come on down to the show at the Miami Beach Convention Center and see the latest and greatest IP Communications solutions on display.   I look forward to seeing you here!    

VoIP Supply Offers Free Shipping on Sangoma Cards

June 12, 2008

VoIP Supply today announced a new promotion whereby they will be offering free shipping on a large portion of their Sangoma product portfolio.   The list of Sangoma products which are available with free ground shipping includes the following cards:  
  • A101
  • A101D
  • A102
  • A102D
  • A104
  • A104D
  • A108
  • A108D
These cards are all part of Sangoma’s family of Advanced Flexible Telecommunications (AFT) hardware product line, available in either PCI or PCI Express formats.   The A101 supports up to 2.048 Mbps of full duplex data through-put or up to 30 voice calls over a single T1, E1, or J1 line.   The A102 provides two ports of optimized voice and data over T1, E1, and JI. The card supports up to 60 voice calls or 4.096 Mbps of full-duplex data throughput over two T1, E1, or J1 lines.   The A104 doubles up the 102, supporting up to 120 voice calls or 8.192 Mbps of full-duplex data throughput over four T1, E1, or J1 lines.   Lastly, the A108 octal card, which provides up to 16.4Mbps of full duplex data throughput or 240 voice calls over eight T1 and or E1 lines.   All AFT cards offer optional availability of Octasic’s DSP hardware and certified algorithms for echo cancellation and Voice Quality Enhancement (VQE) functions.     

Sangoma Acquires Paraxip

July 7, 2008

Sangoma Technologies has just announced that it will acquire Paraxip Technologies Inc. for $4.8 million, payable as $1.9 million in cash and 2.3 million Sangoma common shares.

Paraxip develops IP connectivity software designed to empower the deployment of IP Telephony applications. Customers include IBM, Genesys (a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent), First Data Corporation, and the State of California.

The integration of Paraxip's SIP-based NetBorder suite into Sangoma's product line provides Sangoma with a growth path that includes the Unified Communications market, IP contact centers, commercial interactive voice response solutions and other SIP-based telephony markets.

Fonality Lands $12M in Financing

September 4, 2008

The first bit of news I saw today was that Fonality had landed $12 million worth of financing from a pair of investors including Draper Fisher Jurveston and Intel Capital. Good for Fonality. Good for open source. Simply put, I think this type of investment underscores the viability of building telecommunications products on open source, and frankly is another tolling of the bell, signaling that the traditional closed approaches are no longer suitable.   Fonality's CEO Chris Lyman said in the official press release, that the infusion of funds, "...gives us the freedom to further accelerate our growth and acquisition strategy."   I'm curious to see how this plays out.   Fonality, who announced they had joined IP phone maker snom's ecosystem this week, will be presenting their trixbox Open Communication Certification Courses at the upcoming INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO at the Los Angeles Convention Center on September 16-18.   Interested developers and resellers can sign up for FtOCC Admin, which prepares people to sell and install trixbox, or FtOCC Technician which focuses on trixbox support and troubleshooting.
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