A new open source project, Asterisk (News - Alert) SCF has also been announced by the company in late October. Over the past year, contributions from the open source community have matched Digium’s investment in Asterisk. Asterisk has received code from over 9,800 people to date. This includes more than 200 people who worked on Asterisk 1.8 which was released in October. The increase in momentum is evident from the over two million downloads of the software in 2010. Users of Asterisk include developers, resellers, integrators and systems administrators.
An ordinary computer is converted into a communication server with Asterisk. IP PBX (News - Alert) systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and other communication applications can be powered with this communication server. Asterisk is being used to create standards-based, feature-rich communications systems in more than 170 countries by small businesses, large enterprises, call centers, carriers and governments.
The communication systems are being created at a fraction of the cost of proprietary systems. According to Digium (News - Alert), billions of minutes of phone calls around the world are being handled by Asterisk running over one million servers.
In a press release, Bryan Johns, community director of Digium, said, “Asterisk has made an indelible impression on the voice communications industry in the 11 years since it was released. Its appeal keeps growing as businesses look for the value, flexibility, standards compliance and the technical superiority that result from the contributions of thousands of talented and visionary software developers.”
Johns added that the company is proud to sponsor Asterisk. The company is also proud of the Asterisk community, which currently has 73,000 registered members. The company has released Asterisk 1.8 this fall as it continues its focus on Asterisk development. A new open source project in Asterisk SCF has also been created by Digium, added Johns.
