Stories about: Digium

When Microsoft announced its purchase of Skype earlier this month, it took great pains to affirm its commitment to continuing support for the technology on platforms other than Windows.

Skype has decided not to renew an agreement that allows open-source telephony system Asterisk to be integrated with the service using software developed with Digium.

In a move that might send shivers down the spines of mainstream IP PBX vendors like Avaya, Cisco and ShoreTel, Michigan CAT has deployed an open source Asterisk IP PBX to handle its phone calls and contact centre at half the cost of what commercial vendors would have charged.

Melbourne-based kitchen and whitegoods distributor, Andi-Co, has deployed an Asterisk-based IP-PABX for a unified communications solution.

There's no question that the open source community is a passionate one -- and one with significant influence on technology directions and options. We're way past the days when people asked if Linux or Apache was safe to depend on in business. Open source is now a mainstream part of the technology fabric.

Cybercriminals have found a new launching pad for their scams: the phone systems of small and medium-sized businesses across the U.S.

Mark Spencer, founder of Asterix, looks back on 10 years of the open source PBX and discusses its future -- and that of the VoIP industry in general.

Imagine an IP voice and unified communications system that can be integrated into any application and customised to meet business needs. Sounds great, right? Well that project is the Asterisk IP-PBX and it's free to use and you get the source code. A far cry from proprietary PBX systems perhaps, but Asterisk has a vibrant ecosystem and is replacing systems from more established telephony vendors. Following interviews with the leaders of the Horde and Free Telephony projects, the Open Source Identity series talked to Asterisk founder and Digium CTO Mark Spencer about how one application can have such a profound effect on businesses and how open source can be a tough competitive landscape.

Where do you see open source heading in the next five years, especially with regard to development, community, and market opportunities?

When the city of Madera, California, needed a new voice system, it turned to open-source technology -- not just for the IP telephony but for an entire network-infrastructure overhaul and loads of other functions. All the renovations cost less than half the estimated price of deploying a commercial voice over IP VoIP system alone. This smart, budget-wise use of open source across the network wins the city a 2007 Enterprise All-Star Award.