Some critics dismiss Asterisk as a “toy.” The open source VoIP platform, skeptics say, lacks a service and support network for big enterprise and university deployments. Apparently, the folks at Digium are aware of their critics. The Asterisk market leader has launched a new warranty program that could give skeptical partners and customers more faith in the open source PBX.
Specifically, Digium has launched the Exceptional Satisfaction Program (ESP), which empowers resellers and partners to offer Asterisk customers a range of product guarantees. The Digium ESP program includes:
- A new five-year warranty on all new Digium PCI and PCI Express telephony cards;
- A one-year warranty on all Digium Appliances that can be extended via subscription renewal;
- All Commercial Asterisk Software will come with a one-year subscription standard and can be extended via subscription renewal; and
- A money-back guarantee should Digium products fail to perform as advertised.
By all accounts, Asterisk is maturing rapidly and moving beyond the early adopter stage. The VAR Guy in December 2007 recognized Digium as one of the top 10 open source companies to watch in 2008.
Now, the open source PBX platform is attracting interest from big-name companies like Dell. The PC giant a few weeks ago quietly finalized plans to sell, service and support Asterisk-based solutions from Fonality (a Digium rival) as part of an updated VoIP networking strategy.
Asterisk is also gaining momentum with managed service providers, many of whom offer hosted VoIP services to their customers, according to our sister site, MSPmentor.net.
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Anyone who has actually tried asterisk knows it’s a reliable platform even without digium’s guarantee.
This “toy” has TCP/IP and XML integration capabilities that rival systems at 100 times the price.
This toy is a pain in the ass when it comes to configure Digium’s own bri cards
which indeed makes it just that, a toy.
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Just implemented a limited Asterisk install today. Needed SIP trunking and didn’t want to pay the high prices for the upgrades and licensing our 3com NBX system would have required. Very impressed how easy Asterisk was to install and get working with our existing system and the quality of the calls over the SIP trunks.
My IT department replaced a propietary Telsys + Siemens system priced 1.200.000 Euros, with a 50.000 Euros system based on Asterisk + Java (throught the free OrderlyCalls framework). And it works much, much better. Not so bad for a toy.