I have been testing Asterisk for about 3 months, and is relatively satisfied with the results at the moment. I intend to use it. However, I would like to know the advantages of Asterisk, as compared to commercial solutions like Quintum, Cisco etc from the user’s/customer’s perspective. I have some basic understanding on what Asterisk can provide for me as a service provider, but will require the strengths that are attractive and useful to customers/users/investors that other solutions lack or do not have.
Asterisk is what you make it, which is to say the fact that the source is open there is obviously a huge community using/breaking/modifying/customizing it to do what ever you or your customers pretty little heads would like to do with it (assuming you have some one with the commensurate knowledge to code the solutions)
With a proprietary solution, you are stuck with what they think their installed base needs. Request for additions are just that. They may make it into a release, but the time frame is beyond anything you might find in an open source solution.
I think best strategy is to focus on price, assuming that your cost of customization (in terms of internal development or system integration) is less than buying another vendor’s solution
You can also compile a list of what different vendors say about why you should buy their products, and systematically address those points (e.g. “enterprise scalability”, “turn-key solution”, “more robust resiliency” etc… down to the weak “have a vendor to hold accountable”). If you can refute all points in favor of another solution and show Asterisk is cheaper, it becomes a no-brainer. But tough point is refuting all points re: support SLAs etc. That depends on what you and your team are prepared to sign up for
Let me put it in a different perspective. Years ago people were using pagers as a form of mobile communication. Nowadays, the functions/features available on mobile phones render pagers invalid.
I am not exactly looking that kind of overriding dominance/edge. Since Asterisk is opensource, it can be easily reproduced by commercial vendors. Understand that what my consideration is not what Asterisk is designed to be, but some advantages would help attract users/customers.
I certainly will be cracking my brain to make my service/product more attractive. My view, on terms like enterprise scalability, turn-key solution and robust resiliency, is they are only good with comparison, as you have mentioned.
Or put it another way, Skype and Gizmoproject are successful to a certain degree because they just work. Not many end-users are concerned with what’s happening at the backend that make them work.
