At the Astricon conference in Arizona, Digium announced the AsteriskExchange application store, an overhauled Asterisk.org community site and AsteriskForge for software developers. The three moves potentially solidify Asterisk and Digium as a disruptive force in the IP PBX market and the channel. Digium Founder and CTO Mark Spencer explained the strategy to The VAR Guy.

Over the past year, Digium has gradually grown its channel partner program worldwide. But for some VARs and customers, it’s often difficult to find Asterisk-compatible applications, hardware and related services. Digium is aiming to address that challenge with three key moves:

1.    AsteriskExchange: A forthcoming app store of sorts, which will apparently allow partners and customers to more easily find Asterisk-compatible applications and services.
2.    AsteriskForge: A central location for developers to share and track new Asterisk-related software components and projects.
3.    Asterisk.org: Digium overhauled the community site with new content and new points of access to help partners, customers and developers more easily find key information about Asterisk.

Mark’s Perspectives

Digium’s Spencer offers some quick thoughts on each move in this video:

Looking Ahead

For Digium, this year’s Astricon represents an inflection point of sorts. Historically, the event has mostly attracted Asterisk software developers. But this year, the event has increasingly attracted resellers, solutions providers and major customers. Technology titans such as Cisco Systems Inc. are also among the 620 Astricon attendees.

The VAR Guy had breakfast with Digium CEO Danny Windham, VP of Global Marketing Leslie Conway and VP of Worldwide Sales Steve Harvey earlier today. Our resident blogger will be back soon with a comprehensive update on Digium’s channel, partners and corporate strategy.

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