Digium today released AsteriskNOW, a turnkey easy-to-use version of Asterisk with a web-based GUI that they claim can get a working version of Asterisk up-and-running in 30 minutes. AsteriskNOW is Digium's answer to the popular trixbox "plug and play" Asterisk distro. Previously, AsteriskNOW was in beta, so today is the first day that it is available as a general release. The AsteriskNOW GUI lets users add, modify and delete users. Download options include ISO/CD Image, VM Player image, Xen universal guest image and LiveCD (burn and boot).
I had a chance to talk with Bill Miller, the VP of Product Management of Digium earlier today to talk about this news. Bill Miller told me, "The most important feature of the AsteriskNOW is the setup wizard, which simply takes the user through setting up the time and date band calling plans, connect to the service provider and off they go." He added, "One of the things you will see that we're in the process of doing is adding a series of service providers that are partners of ours and add it to the GUI. The user can select their own service provider if they already have a VoIP service provider or they can get one directly from our GUI and it will be preconfigured. You click on it and you have 'One Click VoIP services'.
Bill mentioned they are working closely with Polycom so that their IP phones can be auto-provisioned. In addition, he mentioned they will soon be adding an affiliate link "Buy Now" on the GUI so that users can click a link and easily buy a preconfigured Polycom phone to work with Asterisk. It will come with the firmware download to work with Asterisk. With some ITSPs you'll see a combination firmware load that comes with the ITSP and Polycom pre-configured. I asked if a premium was added to the phones if you buy a preconfigured Polycom phone and Bill said "Of course any Polycom phone will work because they're a certified partner. It's actually going to be up to the channel not us if they want to charge a premium for that provisioned phone." Fonality, a competing Asterisk solution charges $50 for their pre-configured phones.
You can do a single click upgrade from AsteriskNOW to Asterisk Business Edition which comes with support, the latest bug fixes/updates, etc. Bill mentioned, "Today everything in Asterisk is pure GPL, but we will be adding partners. Our intent is to add business class partners, we're not going to put everything but the kitchen sink in there. It is going to be very well selected and all built around productivity and mobility over time."
"Digium appreciates the initial response to AsteriskNOW. We placed the initial beta version on AsteriskNOW.org last month and have experienced over 2,000 downloads per day without any promotion! Our goal of reducing the complexity of installing and using Asterisk will expand the market for Digium into more mainstream use," said Mark Spencer, president of Digium and creator of Asterisk. "Unlike other Linux distributions used to deploy Asterisk, AsteriskNOW does not have unnecessary components that could compromise security or performance."
AsteriskNOW, based on the recently released Asterisk 1.4, is Digium's open source software appliance and is available for download on the official AsteriskNOW website
android apple asterisk at&t blackberry cell phone cisco dell digium e911 facebook fcc google google talk gps im ip-pbx ipad iphone ipod itexpo ITEXPO lync microsoft mobile phone open source outage phone review sip skype sony unified communications verizon video video conferencing voip vonage wireless xbox 360
- Apple (280)
- Bittorrent (2)
- Call Center and CRM (48)
- Computer Hardware (183)
- Computer Software (71)
- Gadgets (650)
- Google (225)
- Home Entertainment (263)
- Internet (173)
- Linux (111)
- Microsoft (376)
- MovableType (48)
- News (187)
- Personal and Humor (118)
- Politics (9)
- Reviews (246)
- Security (2)
- Social Networking (42)
- Sports/Outdoor Technology (9)
- Tablets (32)
- Technology and Science (355)
- Unified Communications (471)
- VoIP (2285)
- Wireless (584)
- p2p (20)
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
Featured Videos