digium

Skype to be integrated into Asterisk PBXs

The open-source PBX platform Asterisk is to gain Skype functionality, Asterisk's primary developer, Digium, announced on Thursday.

The beta version of Skype For Asterisk, an add-on channel driver module, will make it possible to use the popular Web-telephony service through Asterisk-based, small-business phone systems. A channel driver manages incoming or outgoing calls, acting as an interface for various standards, such as SIP or IAX2. The companies say Skype For Asterisk will enable low-cost, global calling through such systems, while using existing hardware.

"Working together with Skype, our goal is to help businesses boost productivity and reap the rewards … Read more

Open-source founders doubling up on startups

I was confused when Dave Rosenberg told me that he was leaving MuleSource to pursue a game startup. "But you are already the CEO of a startup," I remonstrated. Given his longstanding interest in video games, however, it was probably just a matter of time.

Of course, that was nothing next to my confusion when I kept reading about Digium-founder Mark Spencer hanging out with Marc Fleury, working on an open-source home automation project called OpenRemote. The OpenRemote blog suggests that Digium remains Spencer's primary home, but that he moonlights as the principal hardware designer for OpenRemote.

This morning Dries Buytaert of Drupal/Acquia fame confused me further by announcing Mollom, a "startup Benjamin Schrauwen and [Buytaert] began to help keep your website free of spam."

I asked Jeff Whatcott, vice president of Marketing for Acquia, the company that Dries co-founded, whether Dries was still fully engaged with Acquia, and he told me,… Read more

Random Sampler: Digium's double, Linux desktops, and more

I'm falling behind on the blogging (Hey, it's my end of quarter!) but thought these articles/posts were too good to let slip:

Digium is apparently doubling revenue each year. Given that it was doing $10 million (at least) two years ago, if memory serves, we may be looking at our next open-source IPO. Red Hat received kudos from Gartner and Forrester. In particular, Forrester's report has an awesome statistic: "86 percent of JBoss users are confident that it can handle their largest workloads." I guess presence, not absence, makes the heart grow fonder. Shlomfish … Read more

Open source names to watch (Dave R. vs. Sarah Lacy Round 2)

The second part of my interview with Sarah Lacy over on Yahoo Tech Ticker is now live.

This time I explain what MuleSource (my company) does and discuss some of the other open source companies that I like, including Alfresco and Digium.

Next time I go on I plan to discuss why SaaS and open source are the only ways to build software companies going forward.

Asterisk turns 1,000,000; Digium finishes off a banner year

Most people will never have heard of Asterisk, yet it's a sure bet that an increasing number of these same people make calls with it each day. This week, Asterisk registered its 1,000,000th download, while the company behind Asterisk, Digium, continued its dominance with its 24th straight quarter of growth.

Is there an end in sight for Digium's/Asterisk's success? Not anytime soon, it would appear. Tim O'Reilly has called Asterisk the industry's most under-appreciated open-source success story, and he's probably right, though it depends on whom you ask. Industry pundits may … Read more

Digium and the open-source telephony revolution (Hint: It's well under way)

I've long been an admirer of Digium, the company behind Asterisk, the world's leading open-source telephony platform. Tim O'Reilly has been a longtime proponent of Digium and Asterisk, but I admit that I haven't paid enough attention to the telephony market to understand its importance fully.

I was fortunate to spend some time on the phone with Mark Spencer, founder of Digium and the Asterisk project, and he set me straight on how Digium is doing (Teaser: Exceptionally well), and what it's like to seed a market for one's competition:… Read more

3Com goes VoIP with Asterisk

Surely, 3Com could have written its own VoIP software. In fact, it has, releasing two new products recently based on its own technology. But the more interesting release is its OEM'ing of Digium's Asterisk-based VOIP appliance.

"Digium is the leader in open source telephony, so we are partnering with the most significant company in that space," [3Com marketing director Kevin] Flanagan said. "By taking the [Digium] Asterisk Appliance and placing a 3Com UI on it and supporting it with our Global Service organization, which we believe no other open source telephony provider can do, we … Read more

Digium: Eating its own Asterisk dog food

Digium is still acquisition fodder itself, but the company has decided to do an acquisition of its own, purchasing one of its partners, Switchvox, as CRN reports:

Digium is stirring up the open-source community it helped create by buying one of the vendors that has built an IP-PBX on its Asterisk VoIP platform. Digium Thursday will unveil plans to acquire Switchvox, one of the many SMB-focused vendors that have cropped up in recent years with products built on top of Digium's open-source Asterisk VoIP software. Digium is the primary developer of Asterisk.… Read more

Digium changes to subscription pricing for telephony product

Update: I clarified some wording in the last paragraph to make it clear that the subscription price includes the hardware, not just support.

I confess that, years ago, I was one of those people who was skeptical and somewhat uncomprehending when Linux seller Red Hat changed its pricing to a subscription model, charging for software updates and support over a set period of time. Traditional software companies charge for a license to use a particular piece of technology, but that doesn't work as well in the open-source domain, where getting access to the software itself is easy and free. … Read more