[asterisk-users] Asterisk concurrent calls count

[Steve Totaro]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 12:32 AM, Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 06:43:51PM -0400, Steve Totaro wrote:
>> Maybe next they will charge $250 for "conference bridge" capabilities.
>>  It's a joke to cripple things that can be enabled by flicking a
>> switch.  Your system comes with eight ports of VM but for another $250
>> we can give you 12......
>
> "Feature pricing" (also called "value pricing") is a time honored
> tradition -- especially in the telecom business.
>
> Ever wonder why your telco charged you $2.50 a month for call waiting
> when it involved exactly, let me see, right: *no hardware at all*?
>
> Because they could.
>
> And more to the point: because Nortel charged *them* $20k a year[1] to
> enable the feature in the generic, and they were damn sure gonna get
> that money back from someone.
>
> In this case, *they give away the entire source package.  For free*.
>
> I like you a lot, Steve, generally, but it feels a bit like you're
> whining, on this one, to me...
>
> Cheers,
> -- jra
> [1] These features were indeed charged for, though usually in packages;
> I don't have exact numbers -- though I *do* have a DMS 100 Feature
> Portfolio on my bookshelf, so I could give you a feature number, if you
> like.
> --
> Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
> Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
> Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com                     '87 e24
> St Petersburg FL USA      http://photo.imageinc.us             +1 727 647 1274
>
>             Those who cast the vote decide nothing.
>             Those who count the vote decide everything.
>               -- (Joseph Stalin)
>

Let me clarify this a bit with some ramblings if anyone cares to read,
if not move along.

Yes, I was whining a bit.

I always recommend what I think fits best for a customer.  I am not in
the "Digium Foodchain" because of the first statement.  I swear
allegiance to nobody except my customers, who are trusting me to ask
the right questions, feel them out, be a mind reader to a degree, and
deliver the best customized solution for them that I can.

I have purchased and installed SwitchVoxen a couple of times, more
than a year before they were acquired by Digium.  I am not positive,
but I am pretty sure the pricing model was much different.  Anyways,
if you google my name and SwitchVox you will see that I have always
(time and time again) said it was a great product, and it is.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=7jw&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=steve+totaro+switchvox&spell=1

I guess I hate to see something I have viewed as such a huge paradigm
shift and disruptive force from selling boxes to selling knowledge.  I
hate to see things going back to the status quo of the old world (such
as feature pricing).

BUT, as stated, I am not forced to use SwitchVox or any commercial
product for that matter and Digium has to make money too so I was off
base on that.  While SwitchVox is Asterisk, Asterisk is not Switchvox.
 AsteriskNow is Asterisk but not now.....

I do however, think that Digium should provide some rough concurrent
call figures and I guess that is how I got off topic on this SwitchVox
tangent.  There are some common feature sets, especially when looking
at PBX functionality with or without Zap or transcoding hardware that
could be published (with a disclaimer of course).  There are also
common server platforms but that is more of a moving target.

Maybe if Sangoma publishes some along those lines, then Digium will
follow suit.

Maybe just side by side benchmarking would be sufficient to both give
an idea on scaling and also compare like hardware from different
vendors.  I would probably even throw FreeSwitch into mix.  Word has
it that FS can scale up much larger for setting up and tearing down
calls.  I am an FS newb as of now so it is hearsay.

I like Digium and how they are "Boldly Going Where no Man has Gone
Before (before the politically correct version :-)  It must be hard
coming up with a new business model and while they do things such as
EOLing 1.2 and putting out untested, broken 1.4 code (I could go on
but I am don't want to come across as bashing Digium).

I want to be supportive and thankful, so thanks Digium (and everyone
else in the community).

Thanks,
Steve Totaro