Asterisk is an opensource VOIP server system that works using the industrial standard SIP protocol.
It is owned and operated by Digium, a company whom’s main business is selling hardware DSP cards used for Asterisk VOIP servers. It was originally developed to be for use with linux systems and has now evolved to be useable of BSD, OSX and even the Windows platform. Besides the SIP protocol, it also supports H.323 and the MGCP protocols.
Asterisk can work with all IP phones that are compliant with the SIP protocol and besides voice, it is also able to do video over IP. Besides being a VOIP server, it can integrate with existing PBX and is able to handle instant messaging between clients and can be configured to include an IVR system. As a standalone system, it can replace most conventional PBXes in the office environment.
Though Asterisk has gain fame for amateur IP-PBX builders and VOIP hobbyists, it has not gain much recognition as a proper corporate solution. That is about to change. In the US of A, a solutions provider in New York, EUS Networks has launched an Asterisk telephony solution for hedge funds trading houses of Wall Street. It complies with major regulations such as the call control/ recording capabilities as required by various authorities such as the SarBox Act, Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) and the Financial Industrial Regulatory Committee(FINRA).
If the solution can comply with the regulatory bodies and is supported by an establishment with more than 30 years of experience, why not opensource?
SGLNX believes that the biggest fear of using opensource is that there are no support from the product since it was not purchased from a supplier entity and thus no one is able to claim ownership of failures and be responsible for implementing an opensource system. In the case of EUS Networks, with their 30 years of experience, they have had countless successful integration of IP telephony systems in the recent years using Asterisk and is staking the entire company’s future on this opensource system. If they can have the faith to stake the future of their business on opensource, perhaps the solution is worth looking at.
