Open Source:How it benefits the Telephony Market

Jim WebsterDirector, Technology Partnerships

Digium, Inc.

IT Expo Fall 2008

What is Open Source?

•“Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.”

-- opensource.org

Open Development Concepts

are Thriving...• “Wikinomics”:

•Wiki tools widely used in corporate as well as online•Wikipedia now more widely used than Britannica

• Studies have also shown it to be more accurate•Much more up-to-date

• Based on the Open Collaboration Concept• Anyone can participate•Open process• “Peer-to-Peer” review and correction•Result: Faster, more reliable, more current

Open Source Software Survey

PidginIM

ZimbraMessaging & Collaboration

ThunderbirdEmail Client

FirefoxBrowser

Ubuntu – Edgy EftDesktop

OpenOfficeOffice Suite

AsteriskTelephony/PBX

JBoss for JAVA, PHP on ApacheApplication Server

MySQLDatabase Layer

ApacheWeb Server

LinuxOS

Open Source SolutionFunctional Application

Open Source in the Enterprise

Search Eng – Apache Lucene, ht://Dig

Process Mgt Apps - OpenFlow

Enterp Svc Buses – Open ESB, Mule

Integration Svcs – openadaptor

Embryonic

Virtualization SW - Xen

Portals -Jetspeed, Zope

Enterp Apps – SugarCRM, Compiere

Databases - MySQL, Ingres

Emerging

Directory Svcs - OpenLDAP

Content Mgt – Alfresco, OpenCms

Collaboration – Zope, Drupal

Growing

Security SW – Snort, Nessus

App Servers – JBoss, Geronimo,

Maturing

Server OS – Linux, FreeBSD

Dev Tools – Eclipse, Hibernate, Struts

Most Mature

Sources - Gartner,Network World

Asterisk fits here

What is Asterisk?

• An “Open Source PBX”• Supports both IP and traditional TDM telephony• Started as a solution to a telephone expense

problem of a small business• Evolved into an Applications Development

Environment for telephony•Designed to flexibly interface with

telephony applications and hardware/software

Where Asterisk Fits

The Big Picture

The Asterisk Community• Over 3,000 downloads per day

• 4 million Asterisk servers in service worldwide

• ~ 500 total developer contributors

• ~ 30 regularly active core developers

• Over 50,000 active on Asterisk mailing lists

• Hundreds of “Asterisk-centric” companies

Advantages of Commercial Software Development

• Support: Warranty, Tech Support, Training, Certification

• Formal testing methodology

• Comprehensive Documentation

• Predictable release cycle (not a “moving target”)

• Corporate Structure dedicated to product

• In-house development team

• Management and coordination

• Support team for bug fixes, updates, follow-up

• Legal assurances for Intellectual Property rights

Advantages of Open Source Software

Development• Economics – lower costs to try and implement• “Free market” analogy:

• Minimal central planning• “Community” of self-interested developers• Features and fixes follow community (market) needs

• Quick time to market, short development cycle• Quick fixes to problems: “Given enough eyeballs, all

bugs are shallow” (E. Raymond)

• Open Standards• No one company controls

Commercially-supported Open Source Software

• Open Source software development model• Commercial product based on open source• Adds Support, Documentation, Warranties• Regression testing to assure reliability• Certifications with partner products• Predictable code updates• Stable company backing• The Best of Both worlds

Open Source vs. Traditional PBX Software

• Open Source economies vs. High cost• Open Standards vs. Proprietary protocols • Standard hardware vs. Proprietary hardware• Extremely rich feature set vs. Limited features• Easily Modified vs. Expensive to change• Open APIs/Interfaces vs. Closed architecture• Customer Choice vs. Vendor lock-in

How does this Affect SIP?Open source promotes adoption of SIP

• Community promotes ground-up adoption• Asterisk the most widely used platform

• Free to download, use, modify

• Strives to be the most interoperable

• Can be modified by user to add, make fixes

• Digium promotes more traditional standards efforts• Member of SIP Forum and one of founding members of

SIP Connect™

• Formal Interoperability testing with partner products

Questions?

Thank You!