The VAR Guy

Digium, one of Asterisk’s strongest proponents, plans to announce a global distribution partnership within two weeks, The VAR Guy has learned. The announcement, expected to be made at VoiceCon Orlando, could accelerate customer interest in open source PBXs and IP telephony systems.

The VAR Guy expects plenty of readers to flame him for the headline. Sure, Steve Jobs has owned the innovation spotlight in recent years. And Dell Inc. has never been known as a resource and development (R&D) center. But instead of making the easy moves, Michael Dell is making some challenging ones — pushing deep into the managed services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) industries. With a little luck and a lot of execution, The VAR Guy expects those moves to pay off handsomely by 2009 or so. Here’s why.

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.

It’s time for The VAR Guy to eat a little more crow. Last week, he suggested nobody really cared about Lotusphere anymore. Boy was he wrong. Turns out IBM and the Lotus team unveiled some major partnerships at the event. Here are the top six highlights from Lotusphere, and the potential benefits for VARs.

Microsoft and its hardware partners are speed-dialing their way into the small business voice-over-IP market. Quanta and D-Link, through partnerships with the software giant, intend to offer IP phone systems that cost about $5,500 for a 20-user deployment. Although The VAR Guy is bullish about the Asterisk open source telephony platform, there’s something intriguing about Microsoft’s VoIP relationship with D-Link.

3Com has finally announced plans to embrace Asterisk — the open source telephony platform. The VAR Guy has only one question: What took so long? This is a move 3Com should have announced much earlier this year. But in the company’s defense, it’s still very early in the open source telephony game. And the Asterisk strategy could be a winner for 3Com. Here’s why.

The 3Com Corp. you knew on September 27 is dead. A new 3Com is emerging, effective immediately. The former networking giant has been sold to affiliates of Bain Capital Partners for $2.2 billion in cash. The deal, pending regulatory approval, is long overdue, The VAR Guy believes. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy has spent considerable time wondering if — or when — Cisco was going to meld its VoIP platforms with Asterisk, the open source IP telephony platform. Turns out small integrators and consulting firms are already doing that heavy lifting. One prime example: NeoPhonetics has launched an Asterisk-based unified messaging platform that works with PBX and IP platforms from Avaya, Cisco, NEC and Nortel.

Sure, true fanatics are familiar with Asterisk — the open source IP telephony platform. But there are some clear signs that Asterisk is pushing beyond the open source crowd and gaining momentum within small and midsize businesses. Here are several announcements and events The VAR Guy is tracking. He thinks it’s time for solutions providers to jump in.