[Asterisk-Users] Is Asterisk ready for "real" use?

[Anton Tinchev]

Mike Ciholas wrote:

> Okay,
> 
> I am facing a move in two months to newly renovated space.  I 
> have to decide *this week* between:
> 
> A) Pull LAN and phone cables, prepare to move and expand our
> "traditional" PBX (Panasonic KX-TD1232 and VPS200).
> 
> or
> 
> B) Pull only LAN cables, go VoIP, use Asterisk as PBX.
> 
> It is *not* an option to purchase a VoIP system package from
> Cisco, 3com, etc.  Installers are getting an enormous premium for
> this now (rough estimate, 20 extensions $40K (!)).
> 
> I am "this close" to committing to a solution based on Asterisk 
> PBX, PoE LAN switches, and VoIP phones.  I am absolutely sure it 
> is the right *long term* solution, but I don't know if it is 
> "ready" for reliable daily usage.
> 
> I've literally read the last year's worth of posts to 
> asterisk-users to get a "feel" for the situation.  Since you 
> don't see posts of the form "installed it, just working, no 
> problems" very often, you could get the opinion that everyone has 
> problems since that is what the mailing list is for.
> 
> So, I would like to hear from those out there that have a system 
> as I've described above and tell me if I'm insane to commit this 
> direction or whether it makes sense.
> 
> For those of you who have done it, how much time did it take you 
> to get the system running smoothly?
> 
> PS: In case it matters, we're extremely Linux capable (we use it
> for our file serving, networking, and we built our own custom ERP
> on perl and mySQL, we also do embedded Linux in custom military
> robot controllers).
> 
For me it is ready for heavy use. I allready using it for 1 call center (call queues ...) and for the offise
PBX.
Now i'm waiting some hardware (channel banks ....) to test it with 100+ lines (1 E1 Trunks and analog lines).
Only thing that is, if you're are begginer asterisk user, you will need some more time to get whole picture
and the features (3-4 days googling and reading mailing list archives)