Astricon: Seven Questions for Digium
Asterisk, the open source IP PBX, is turning 10 years old. And Digium, the fast-growing provider of commercial Asterisk solutions, is hosting the Astricon conference this week. All sounds well. But The VAR Guy will raise seven key questions when he speaks with Digium officials later today. Here they are.
1. Let’s Talk Profits… And IPO: So, is Digium profitable? And is there a potential path to an IPO (initial public offering)? Sure, financial markets remain mixed at best. But Digium’s disruptive business model seems to be attracting customers and solutions providers. Will that lead to an eventual IPO?
2. Going Upstream and Downstream: So what is Asterisk’s market sweet spot — small and midsize businesses, departments within large enterprises, or even entire corporate deployments?
3. Heading for Home: Does Digium expect Asterisk to move into the home and consumer markets? If so, when and how?
4. Channel Update: No doubt, Digium has been attracting new solutions providers this year. But what makes a good partner? And is Digium attracting VARs from other partner programs — say, ShoreTel, Cisco or Nortel?
5. Applications: Is Asterisk emerging as an applications platform? If so, what types of applications are ISVs (independent software vendors) developing for Asterisk? And how is Digium striving to help grow the Asterisk ISV market?
6. OEMs: Will Digium work with traditional server makers and hardware appliance developers? If so, in what ways?
7. SaaS and Cloud: Are we nearing a tipping point for SaaS- and cloud-based Asterisk deployments? Why or why not?
Lots of questions. The VAR Guy will go dialing for answers later today.
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When you say ISVs, do you mean proprietary ISVs or open-source ones?
Because it seems the disruptive nature of open-source software like Asterisk would disrupt proprietary ISVs as well.
[…] Astricon: Seven Questions for Digium Asterisk, the open source IP PBX, is turning 10 years old. And Digium, the fast-growing provider of commercial Asterisk solutions, is hosting the Astricon conference this week. All sounds well. But The VAR Guy will raise seven key questions when he speaks with Digium officials later today. […]
Lawrence: The VAR Guy means both… closed source and open source apps for Asterisk, much in the way that closed source applications (Oracle, Lotus, etc.) run on Linux. The VAR Guy will be back with more info later today. The Digium executive team answered The VAR Guy’s seven questions over breakfast this morning.