[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk vs. Traditional PBX

[Nora Lavelle]

Thanks so much to all of you this has helped me out immensely ! 

Have a great day !
Nora


-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of William
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 7:23 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk vs. Traditional PBX

Kerry is right on.

We use a similar config in dozens of installs with 200 users and it just
cruises. Consider adding a duplicate server for failover at some point.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: "Kerry Garrison" <support at techdatapros.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 06:57:32 
To:"'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
Discussion'"<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Subject: RE: [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.
 
[Kerry Garrison sayeth] 
The 841 is fine for testing but I would never put one on a clients desk.
The sound quality is bottom of the barrel. Combine that with the TDM400
card and its a wonder anyone will use the phone system at all. Move up
to the Linksys SPA941 or SPA942 or the Polycom 501 and then use a
different interface such as the Mediatrix 1204 or a PRI and your users
will be singing your praises till the end of time. 

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 )

[Kerry Garrison sayeth] 
Asterisk is a great solution for your company and you will have many
more benefits than the Northstar system. 
 
* 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
? 
 
[Kerry Garrison sayeth] 
You would want a beefier machine and at least one PRI. Its not the
number of people, its the number of concurrent phone calls. I see
businesses with 100 people and they average 5-7 concurrent calls and I
have clients with 15 people that average 12-15 concurrent calls.  

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.
 
[Kerry Garrison sayeth] 
My largest install is approaching 55 users, with the PRI and Polycom
501's they couldnt be happier. The system is on a nice 2.8ghz XEON
system with 2gb of RAM and at peak times the server is basically idle. 

Thanks again this list ROCKS!
Nora Lavelle


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