[asterisk-users] How big is *your* dialplan??

[Michael Collins]

After working with NEC systems for more than 10 years, both as a
technician and as an end user, I can say with confidence that their
stuff just doesn't break.  Period.  You can kill it by installing it in
an unventilated phone closet, outside and exposed to 110F degree Fresno
summers, but even then I've seen NEC's in those environments last for
10+ years!

Yes, the proprietary PBX stuff is very resilient.  The only time you
really need a backup is for power supplies and components that have
HDDs.  The usual suspects: heat (power supplies) and moving parts (HDDs)
are the culprits.

That all being said, the advantage that Asterisk (and other OSS telecom
platforms) offers is the ability to remove significant cost from the
equation.  If you can afford a box that can run Linux (and the requisite
telecom hardware, if applicable) then you can get a very inexpensive PBX
up and running.  Keeping good backups of config files is the best way to
prevent long downtimes.  If something is mission critical then a
business would also invest in having a hot spare or something else "on
the shelf" in case of an emergency, like a spare HDD or two, a spare box
pre-configured, etc.

<pontification>
Bottom line: Proprietary PBX vendors make rock-solid stuff that runs
forever, but you pay for it up front.  Asterisk runs on lots of
different systems, some of which may not be rock-solid, but you still
have freedom of choice, and THAT is what OSS is all about!  
</pontification>

-MC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
> bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Douglas Garstang
> Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:56 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: RE: [asterisk-users] How big is *your* dialplan??
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Andrew Kohlsmith [mailto:akohlsmith-asterisk at benshaw.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:00 PM
> > To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> > Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] How big is *your* dialplan??
> >
> >
> > On Wednesday 11 October 2006 13:23, Douglas Garstang wrote:
> > > No one's system is redundant? :O
> >
> > Is your Norstar MICS redundant?  How about an NEC Electra?
> 
> I have no data to prove it, but isn't the time between failures on
this
> type of TDM PBX equipment far better than a commodity server? Do they
have
> any moving parts? A server has moving parts, and moving parts fail.
> 
> > I'd put good money on the VAST majority of SMB's phone
> > systems NOT being
> > redundant, and maybe only 60% of them being on any kind UPS,
> > with maybe 25%
> > of that 60% having been measured to see how long they can
> > ride through.
> 
> We have our servers power supplies sourced from different plants, with
a
> generator etc, but we aren't an SMB. :)
> 
> Doug.
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