Astricon 2010 Speaker: Asterisk, an Ever-Changing Market

With the expansion of 3G networks worldwide, the rising demand for mobile video services is creating new revenue opportunities for both mobile network operators and application developers.  Dialogic allows its partners to bring video to both their already successful voice applications and to new video-only applications.

TMC recently conducted an exclusive interview with Antony Martin, director of open source engineering for Dialogic (News - Alert).  Antony has been involved in the telecommunications industry for over 20 years. As a developer Antony's experience ranges from PBX hardware and embedded software to IVR, Call Center and Unified Messaging software and systems.

During their discussion, Martin explained to TMC that the Asterisk (News - Alert) market is constantly growing, allowing people to continue finding new ways to benefit from it. Due to the quantity and the diverse nature of the products offered on the Asterisk exchange, the Asterisk path continues to evolve.

Martin will be a keynote presenter at AstriCon 2010, the world's premier Asterisk user conference and expo. AstriCon will kick off on Oct. 26, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Visit Dialogic at booth #207. The complete interview can be found below.

How has the Asterisk market changed over the past year?

The Asterisk market has continued to develop and mature over the past year. You can see from the quantity and the diverse nature of the products offered on the Asterisk exchange that the Asterisk footprint continues to grow. People are continuing to discover Asterisk and continue to find new ways of using it.

What influence has open source had on the overall communications space over the past 12 months from a product and/or competitive perspective.

Open source has had the effect of commoditizing certain product segments within the communication space.  It has provided platforms like Asterisk, FreeSWITCH and openSIPS that provide functional building blocks, allowing developers and system integrators to produce cost-effective communications solutions.

Is open source still primarily an SMB phenomenon or has it seen increased acceptance in the large enterprise space?

It is fair to say that SMB’s have been early to adopt open source, maybe initially attracted by its disruptive pricing model.  However, let’s not forget companies like RedHat who have been supporting its open source operating system into large enterprises for many years backed by a worldwide support network. As open source products mature and companies develop worldwide support models around their open source products, the adoption by larger enterprises will increase.

What has been the key driver of open source adoption?

In order to drive end user adoption of open source software, I believe you need to deliver a functional solution that satisfies a business need with the backing of a professional support organization.  There are plenty of open source projects that start with a good idea and no doubt contain excellent code.   However, they don’t get widespread adoption because they are incomplete or only provide partial functionality.

Using Asterisk as an example, once you could process calls and produce simple IVR scripts it became functional and satisfied a business need for some. This starts adoption which increases as functionality is added and the project becomes relevant to a wider audience.  Having the community infrastructure and support also helps increase adoption rates.

Has the success of Google’s (News - Alert) android mobile platform helped Increase awareness and interest in open source?

Anything that Google gets involved with will no doubt increase awareness. However unlike open source software like Asterisk, Android (News - Alert) is packaged by the hardware manufacturer and is not always the reason why somebody would purchase a mobile handset. However being open I am sure it will drive innovation in this space.

Why is your booth a must-visit for attendees?

We would like to assure attendees understand that Dialogic. sponsors Project DiaStar™, an open-source project that develops the DiaStar™ Server, which delivers advanced signaling, media, audio, and video transcoding to complement and enhance the Asterisk platform. Dialogic also offers boards and media gateways that bring solid network connectivity and enhanced media processing to Asterisk.

Stefanie Mosca is a Web editor for TMCnet. Previously she worked as a freelance copy editor for Digital Surgeons LLC. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University and a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of New Haven. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca