The Case for Open Communications Bryan M. Johns Community Director Digium, Inc.
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
About Asterisk In development for more than a decade More than 9800 development contributors Downloaded more than 2 million times in 2010 Deployed on more than 1 million servers Deployed in 170 countries around the world
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
About Digium Founded in 1999 as Linux Support Services Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, USA Sponsor of the Asterisk and Asterisk SCF Projects Marketer of all things Asterisk 170 employees and growing
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
About the Community Asterisk.org Community has nearly 80,000 members Asterisk project has nearly 10,000 developers Primary driving force behind Asterisk Steers and constantly improves the technology
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
In the Beginning All telecom solutions based in hardware 1-to-1 correlation between lines and ports Only established standards exist at the carrier dialtone layer All PBX solutions highly proprietary and difficult to implement / maintain
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The Incremental Revenue Model Capacity-constrained solutions at the carrier layer Capacity-constrained solutions at the PBX layer The "line" dynamic Heavily limited support options
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
Then Along Comes VoIP Initially, VoIP adopted on the company side "Packets", not "Ports" Carriers forced to address inefficiency of format conversion The "Line Dynamic" erodes in the carrier space
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
Asterisk Changes Expectations "Line Dynamic" persisted in PBX market Open source promotes open architecture Focus on open standards demands interoperability
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
Collapse of the Incremental Model Open solutions demonstrate what's possible The entire market moves to SIP (VoIP) The bad economy pushes VoIP and open source forward Justification of incremental pricing becomes more difficult
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
A New Type of Competitor No incremental pricing model Connectivity built upon standards Free to use Extensive and unrestricted feature set
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
FUD Proprietar y vendor response to open competition is (initially) Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Lack of a intelligent response to open competition is a good thing The accelerating popularity of open and standards-based solutions is changing proprietary vendor competitive positioning.
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Diss" Vendor is dismissive or disrespectful of open source solutions on the general position that they should not be taken seriously. Usually sounds something like this:
"Do you really want to risk your company's ability to communicate with it's customer's to a bunch of computer nerds who think making a free phone system is cool?"
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Diss": Response Asterisk (example of largest open source solution) is currently running on more than 1 million servers. Asterisk has been built, managed and maintained by nearly ten thousand developers around the world. Asterisk powers untold numbers of service provider networks that switch many millions of minutes of VoIP phone services monthly
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Rinky Dink" Vendor insinuates that open source solutions cannot be trusted, aren't ready for commercial use or are only appropriate for use by very small companies. Usually sounds something like this:
"Open source isn't appropriate for business telecommunications. I mean, I guess it works, but it can't handle the demands of modern unified communications. Maybe if you were a three person company working it your basement, it would make sense"
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Rinky Dink": Response The included capabilities of Asterisk surpass even the biggest, baddest systems available from proprietary vendors. Asterisk is deployed commercially in installations from one to many thousands of users. The commercial viability of Asterisk is demonstrated by the vibrant ecosystem that orbits the project.
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Question Mark" Vendor questions viability of open technologies on the basis that there's too many unknowns. Usually sounds something like this:
"If you choose an open source solution, how do you know where the technology is headed? How do you know anyone will want to continue developing that software in the future? Will that technology still be supported in the industry five years from now? Etc."
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Question Mark": Response Asterisk (and other open source solutions) are built on established and broadly supported industry standards Adoption of Asterisk is expanding year-over-year and bringing ever more third party platform support Open source solutions allow for rapid adaptation to market and technological changes
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Castaway" Vendor questions the supportability of the technology by suggesting that there aren't professional options available. Usually sounds something like this:
"Do you really want to have to hire an (insert open source solution name here) expert to maintain your phone system? If you don't, how do you know you'll have access to the support you need in the future?"
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
The "Castaway": Response There are a wide variety of support options available for Asterisk installations, including support from Digium The standards-based IP network aspects of Asterisk allow for comprehensive remote support solutions, expanding options There are numerous commercial implementations of the technology, such as SwitchVox, that come with the same docs and support as any other solution
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
Why Open Source?: Summary Support for standards provides inherent interoperability and choice Open source attribute provides inherent extensibility and flexibility Extensive set of features not metered or "Line Dynamic" constrained Wide variety of support methods and options protects technology investment
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
Where's All of This Headed? A continuing migration away from TDM / Analog phone service and toward SIP Telecommunications expanding to include new media types such as video, text and desktop sharing A rush to "Cloud" architectures Higher expectations for capabilities and reliability in IP communications networks
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
Digium's Plans Asterisk SCF beta at Astricon 2011 with release by year's end Asterisk 1.10 with dramatic enhancements to media handling and other improvements in 2011 A bunch of new Asterisk-based products and services that I can't talk about. (stay tuned!)
Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011
THANK YOU! Questions? Stay Informed! twitter.com/bryanmjohns twitter.com/asterisk twitter.com/digium Prepared by: Bryan M. Johns | Community Director
Private and Confidential | Digium, Inc. | 2011