[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk vs. Traditional PBX

[Chad Osmond]

You may be using less then ideal phones. With a Polycom 501, I can't see
you having voice quality issues, With a Sangoma or Digium card and a PRI
the quality and functions of a Asterisk system are on par with most
PBX's (I'd say they're above).
 
It is a good solution for most companies, consider the ability to change
features and expand only limited by your abilities (or those of
consultants).
 
For 200 people, you will probably need 40 channels, which will be two
T1's, so start looking for a dual T1 card ( again Digium and Sangoma
make excellent products).
 
Hope this helps, there are thousands of systems running in companies of
your size.
 
I would recommend running two servers in a active/passive format and
rsync them every hour (to a different directory). If the server blows up
and kills the board you can easily switch over in a few seconds.
 
It also makes upgrading easier,.
 
Chad

________________________________

From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Nora
Lavelle
Sent: February 9, 2006 9:15 AM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk vs. Traditional PBX




Hi everyone !

So here's my question of the day !  I need to make a decision on whether
or not to go to a voip solution or configure an existing pbx (norstar)
that my company has available.  We are a small startup. I'm wanting a
solution that will support up to about 200 people, with direct dial-in
capability, up to about 30 concurrent phone calls and good voice
quality. Right now I have an asterisk deployment with about 15 people on
it. We have sipura 841 phones. The biggest issue currently is voice
quality. lot of complaints there.  I have a dell 650 poweredge (single
processory system), with a digium tdm400 card and 4 analog lines plugged
into it.

So here are my questions:

* Is asterisk a good solution for my company ? or should I just install
the traditional pbx and look to move to asterisk in a couple of years ?
(I personally would prefer asterisk cuz I'm a  unix person not a phone
person so from a manageability perspective i would love this )

* If I were to go to an asterisk solution to support about 200 people
with the requirements above what hardware platform would you recommend ?
I'm guessing I'd need a PRI line and a different digium card? Also would
a 1cpu poweredge dell be enough ? or would that have to be upgraded too
? 

If anyone is running an environment similar to this that can provide
help I would really appreciate this. I'm having a hard time making this
decision and would love to hear anybody's experience in a real time
environment.

Thanks again this list ROCKS!
Nora Lavelle




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