Comments for Asterisk goes Big via Virtual Servers

Asterisk goes Big via Virtual Servers

2008-01-29T15:23:48Z

According to NetworkWorld, "Digium, the business founded by Asterisk creator Mark Spencer to capitalize on his PBX, says it plans later this year to release a new version that will support much larger deployments. New Jersey-based service provider VoicePulse plans a hosted PBX service based on Asterisk deployed on virtual servers."

Reminds me of my 2006 VoIP Predictions post where I said:

Asterisk (Digium), the open-source IP-PBX gets deployed by a Fortune 500 company. I should point out that I don't mean a small Fortune 500 branch office that installs a single Asterisk server. I'm talking about a Fortune 500 company that installs Asterisk in at least 5 branch offices OR at their main corporate headquarters. This would be major news for Asterisk and another endorsement of the open source movement. Cisco is asked for comment on this young upstart and simply replies, "Cisco is a well established company with reliable, scalable, and affordable VoIP solutions that is committed to its customers and will be here for years to come."

I'm still waiting for that first Fortune 500 deployment. It's now been two years since I made the prediction. C'mon Asterisk, I've been such a faithful follower of all things Asterisk, don't let me down! You can do it!

Comment from Pieter on 2008-01-30

2008-01-30T14:23:58Z

Much larger deployments? What does that mean? Anyone who has worked with Asterisk on a serious level knows it does not scale. Ever tried a DS3 link on an Asterisk box? An Asterisk-based hosted PBX solution is commonly outfitted with (Open)SER SIP proxy as the front-end which shields Asterisk from taking a beating. Usually Asterisk is just used as an application server (e.g. voicemail and a conference bridge) or as a pure (non-transcoding) VoIP-TDM gateway with max 8 PRI's per beefy box.

Any Fortune 500 VoIP tech worth his/her money and has done some proper Asterisk testing is fully aware of Asterisk's potential and shortcomings. It just does not seem suitable for large Fortune 500 environments. So without any hard data and performance numbers that can be recreated I'll just assume it's Digium's Marketing attempt to steal some thunder from Fonality's Dell announcement.

Here's my bet: in 2008 FreeSWITCH, the Open Source telephony platform that seems quite capable of running circles around Asterisk (www.freeswitch.org), will be deployed in a Fortune 500 company the way you described. Using either FreeSWITCH itself or a product based on FreeSWITCH. In 2008 Asterisk will still not be deployed at a Fortune 500 company as you described.

Comment from Tom Keating on 2008-01-30

2008-01-30T15:04:17Z

You are correct that Asterisk has scalability challenges. I've covered those challenges when I analysed another company claiming a "scalable" Asterisk, as seen here:

Signate announces SIGPro Scalable Asterisk Solution

There is however, a true scalable 64-bit hosted version of Asterisk which you may not be aware of. I broke the news about this company in January of last year:

Bluewave Telecom Hosted Asterisk Solution

So there is the possibility of a Fortune 500 deploying Asterisk using Bluewave Telecom's Asterisk solution. But they need more market brand-name recognition / mindshare to get a Fortune 500 CIO/CTO to sign-up with them. Still, the proof-of-concept of scalable Asterisk is there.