The open source Asterisk PBX platform has been around for nine years and is snapping at Cisco's heels in the VoIP space. Having enjoyed success as an attractive alternative to pricey IP PBX  systems, there is now a spate of commercial vendors that charge for Asterisk professional services, peripherals and software extensions. (Dell reseller Fonality is one of them. See these recent Cisco Subnet blog posts about this vendor: Cisco vs. Asterisk via Fonality, and Cisco's a bad bet for phone systems, says Dell VoIP reseller Fonality.) Now Digium, the business founded by Asterisk creator Mark Spencer to capitalize on his PBX, says it plans later this year to release a new version that will support much larger deployments, according to a story by Network World's Tim Greene.

With successful partnerships already under its belt, the company promises to broaden its influence this year as 3Com makes Asterisk available on a blade for its multifunction branch-office routers. This is in addition to the relabeled commercial Asterisk appliance made by Digium for 3Com small-business customers.

Is this the year of Asterisk?

More about Asterisk:

* Burning questions about Asterisk open source PBX platform

* Digium's AsteriskNow provides solid IP PBX base

* Going it alone with Asterisk requires some effort

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Go to Cisco Subnet for more Cisco news, blogs, discussion forums, security alerts, book giveaways, and more.

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