[Asterisk-biz] Asterisk training and certification :: Astricon Training

[Olle E. Johansson]

*** Asterisk™ Open Source Linux PBX Training and Certification

Huntsville, AL and Kansas City, MO, December 20, 2004: Digium, Inc., 
Edvina AB and Sokol & Associates today released a new program for 
training and certification of Asterisk professionals. Asterisk is the 
leading Open Source PBX for Linux, with support for both PSTN 
connectivity and many VoIP protocols.

The first class in the Astricon Training product line is the five-day 
bootcamp “Introduction to Asterisk”. This class will be held in the US 
and Europe six times during 2005. The organizers and teachers is the 
same team that set up the Astricon 2004 conference and expo in September 
this year, an event that gathered over 450 Asterisk users and developers 
in Atlanta, GA.

The new Asterisk certification is named dCAP, Digium Certified Asterisk 
Professional. To get the certification, one has to go through a 150 
question exam as well as a practical exam, where the student builds and 
configures a PBX. The certification will be given by the Astricon team 
under license from Digium.

“This is an important step towards greater acceptance of Asterisk in the 
enterprise”, says Olle E. Johansson of Edvina in Sweden. “With a 
professional training and certification, you can ensure that your staff 
or your consultants has the required skills to setup and manage a 
mission-critical PBX platform based on Asterisk.”

“The Asterisk Open Source project is building a professional business 
ecosystem”, says Mark Spencer, the founder of Digium and creator of 
Asterisk. “Many companies are now selling Asterisk-based solutions. With 
the 1.0 stable release in September, the Digium hardware that ranges 
from the IAXy end-user device to carrier-class quad-T1 cards and the 
Digium commercial support we have a professional platform for partnering 
with major enterprises. The Astricon training and dCAP certification 
enables us to build a network of consultants that we know will and are 
able to assist us working on the continued success of Asterisk.”

The first training class will be held in Kansas City, MO, January 17-21 
2005. The cost for a five-day bootcamp with certification is $3,275 USD. 
Details can be found on http://www.astricon.net

Asterisk™ is the leading open source PBX, used all over the world. Since 
it is Linux-based, it inherits all of the power and stability of the 
operating system. Linux provides open source alternatives to proprietary 
applications. Asterisk is the first package to fit all telecommunication 
needs in a broad variety of environments.

Digium™ is the creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the industry’s 
first open source PBX. Used in combination with Digium’s PCI telephony 
interface cards, Asterisk offers a strategic, highly cost-effective 
approach to voice and data transport over TDM, switched, IP, and 
Ethernet architectures.
Digium provides a highly refined selection of quality hardware and 
software products, developed and implemented using innovative 
engineering techniques (primarily open source development). A full range 
of professional services complement these product lines, including 
consulting, technical support, and custom software development services. 
The open source communications revolution is here, and Digium is leading 
the way.

Contacts:
•	Olle E. Johansson, Edvina AB, Phone +46 8 594 788 10,
	http://www.astricon.net
•	Steven M. Sokol, Sokol & Associates,
	Phone: +1.816.822.1807, IaxTel: 700.613.9004
•	Digium, press contact Rick Segrest,
	Phone: +1 (256) 428-6000
	http://www.digium.com