Asterisk: Who's Answering the Call for Training?

By Len Sandy 1

Asterisk Open Source IP PBX Training

The AstriCon conference, scheduled for October 13-15 in Glendale, Ariz., is piecing together a conference agenda now. The event attracted more than 600 Asterisk enthusiasts in 2008, according to Digium — the company most widely credited with driving Asterisk forward.

Admittedly, 600 attendees isn’t a “massive” event, but it does represent the start of a broader open source IP PBX movement that’s spilling over into the IT channel.

More Voices In the Global Crowd

Meanwhile, solutions providers are stepping in to offer additional Asterisk training seminars. Infradapt, a Digium channel partner in Philadelphia, Pa., plans to host an educational Asterisk seminar at the Association of TeleServices International Seminar, scheduled for June 17-20 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Across the big pind, in-depth Asterisk training — called the Open Telephony Training Seminar — will surface in the United Kingdom and Amsterdam, The Netherlands this June.

And in India, Enterux Solutions is now authorized to provide Digium training courses to businesses in India. Enterux’s educational efforts include a one-day Asterisk introductory course and a five-day “Asterisk Advanced Certification” course. Not by coincidence, Enterux owns and operates its own VoIP network and offers enterprise and hosted IP PBX options.

Competition Continues

Although Asterisk continues to build momentum, many members of the IT channel remain fiercely loyal to Microsoft. During the HTG Summit and peer group meeting last week in Dallas, more than 350 VARs and solutions providers spent time learning about Microsoft’s small business solutions — including the ResponsePoint VoIP phone system. And some solutions providers are launching managed services built around ResponsePoint.

But in terms of global mind share, Asterisk seems to have a loud, loyal, and growing crowd of followers.

Contributing blogger Len Sandy covers VoIP in the IT channel. Read all of his entries here. The VAR Guy is updated multiple times daily. Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe to his newsletter, RSS feed, Twitter feed , Webcasts and Resource Center.