[Asterisk-Users] Large Enterprises using asterisk

[Tenorio, Leandro]

	I've been reading, learning from you guys and researching the
various sites I've found dedicated to * for a while, trying to
understand how it works and the best way to get the features work in our
little environment (1 E1/8 POTS/30 VoIP phones, and a couple of
Faxes/Modems/etc).
	I found a lot of useful information plus a lot of people working
to make a better product with a lot of features that sometimes if you
use commercial products require $40K/50K or more, VM it's a simple but a
powerful one, IVR is great, and the way it manage the Dial Plan is
another. That's why I think that * is a great product with a lot effort
putted on it, with very useful features
	What I also saw in my little research that * in not suitable for
large deployments like medium or large enterprises or sometimes even
smalls ones with specifics needs, any of you could mention a lot of
them, Call Centers, Banks, etc. and why not carriers for their own use.

	NOW, let me explain my POV.

	I worked for a large company (a Customer Management Company,
sometimes wrong called a Call Center Company) a lot of years (like 10).
I would disagree with Michael, it's not important to know Linux to make
them use *, in those companies the people that take those decisions
doesn't know even Windows, Solaris or IOS (those're just names) and more
important they don't need to. They just know the brands (Avaya, Nortel,
Cisco, Sun, HP, etc. just to mention some of them).
	They trust in people that make reports based on a couple of
things, Brands, features, money and capacity for deployment.

- Brand - The * brand it's Linux and GNU, which is good, I hear from a
couple of companies that they 're starting to think to use it on some of
their projects, just because the world it's spinning on it. First
problem solved.

- Money - * cost them nothing (which I think it's wrong) and it's not
about TCO or ROI (Windows cost them a lot, not to mention Exchange which
it's used on most of the large orgs. It's not quite cheap), I think that
those orgs SHOULD have developers to contribute (yes contribute not
steal for/from the community). Second problem almost, it will just take
some time.

- Features - * has a lot of features, not just the ones that came with
the product, also the features that a lot of people help to develop, 4
reporting, dialers, protocols, etc. All of us with resources SHOULD put
those resources (programmers, servers, time, Trunks) to help the
community to grow (I'm trying to do that in my company) Third one is on
the way, so don't worry on it.

- Capacity for deployment - I know a lot of great products that just die
because the brands don't saw the time coming (Novell with Netware it's
and example, IMHO Netware, in their time, was a much better product that
Windows NT Server) not even mention when Novell sold Unix). THE THING to
change JIT could be anything, a way to sell, a way to marketing the
product or the roadmap use to develop. Here is where I think * could be
better, but the decision it's yours or better, OURS (users and
developers), if we want to make * a product for the masses (just
developers, techies???, and small companies) you're in the right way, if
you want to make it a product for a Company or an org, you're not. DON'T
GET ME WRONG, (I will be an * user and I will help the community to
grow) and I'm not saying that * will be dead in the future.

	IMHO, * need a change in the architecture, in the way it's made,
and in the way it works, not just more features or Bug solving.
	I'll be thinking, yes I also think, in the last weeks the way to
help, I'm not a programmer so I could not develop, I don't even know
Linux the way you do, so I could not help that way either, but I could
help in other ways, That's why I take 2hs to write this email and I love
to do it.
	Think on it. Think on an * system with servers for Trunks (IP,
TDM, don't care), servers for core routing, servers for VM, servers used
as IVRs, remember what those companies needs (redundancy, fault
tolerance, load balancing, among other things) * don't have these
features yet, think on systems with 600, 1K or even 3K users, think on
systems that when a server crash (and believe, servers always crash)
others take the place, with a little o even better with no downtime, 4
those users, trunks or systems. When that time comes, and trust me it
could be done, * could be used in orgs. 

Sorry 4 my English, it's hard 2 explain in a foreign language what I try
to. 

Just my 2c, Leandro

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kanwar
Ranbir Sandhu
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 7:12 PM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Large Enterprises using asterisk

On Thu, 2004-07-22 at 10:16, Sunrise Ltd wrote:
> Michael Little wrote:
> 
> >Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to use Linux.
> 
> While I don't disagree with your comments in general, I
> take issue with the notion that Asterisk automatically
> means Linux.
[snip]

> Perhaps it is time to think about getting a hint from the
> Apache folks and represent Asterisk on the official
> website as
> 
> "Asterisk - the number one open source PBX on the
> internet"
> 
> and "an effort to develop and maintain an open-source
> telephony server for UNIX based operating systems
> including Linux and BSD."
[snip]

I agree!  This would be an excellent way to market Asterisk.  We're
working with a marketing company at the moment to develop
marketing/sales materials and to generate interest in our company.  What
you've stated above about Asterisk sounds like a PERFECT way to sell
Asterisk to the masses.

My two cents.

Regards,

Ranbir

-- 
Ranbir
Systems Aligned Inc.
www.systemsaligned.com

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