[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk and SER

[Daniel Salama]

I'm a little confused between the pros/cons or benefits of one Asterisk 
or SER. I've been using Asterisk for a little bit and I know it's a 
very powerful and scalable platform (in terms of capacity and 
functionality). However, I've read in some posts that some people are 
using SER + * and I read no SER's page that it can even do what * does.

So, if I have an application where I wish to offer telephony services 
(call origination/termination) with "applications" such as prepaid 
services, conferencing, IVRs, "ACD", dialers, etc, would a single 
installation of * be sufficient? By single I mean * alone (it could be 
a cluster) and not with SER. I guess to some degree it may depend on 
the number of clients, but imagine trying to offer a service similar to 
Vonage.

I buy a "simple" SIP phone, bring it home, sign up for service at 
www.beyourownprovider.com, register my phone on the site and voila - 
ready to make and/or receive calls. I can call other members, similar 
to FWD or I can terminate to PSTN.

Now, multiply this scenario to hundreds or thousands of SIP phones 
spread all over the place, in-front and behind NATs.

What would be your approach? Would you still use SER for anything?

Is this the right list to post this question?

Thanks,
Daniel