Digium Asterisk and Fax Finally Connect

By Len Sandy 1

Sometimes when you compete in a marathon, you forget the basics — such as tying your shoes. That’s the case at Digium, which faces fierce competition in the IP PBX market — and is only now introducing Fax for Asterisk. Why did it take Digium so long to bring this solution to market? If you’re distracted by that question you’re missing the bigger picture: Fax for Asterisk is another sign that Digium is growing up.

The news is straightforward. According to Digium, Fax For Asterisk interoperates with standards-compliant fax machines connected to Asterisk 1.4 and 1.6 on x86 Linux systems. It’s available for free from Digium (http://store.digium.com/) or one concurrent fax session. Multi-session licenses are available for a one-time fee of $38.50 per channel.

Yes, third-party fax solutions (such as Noojee Fax) exist for Asterisk. But let’s look at the bigger picture.  Digium has spent the past year evangelizing Asterisk certifications, accelerating deployments, and lining up channel partners to support the open source IP PBX. Sometimes big initiatives distract a company from important baby steps and point solutions — such as Fax for Asterisk.

Remember, in the 1990s many businesses and solutions providers connected the dots between Windows NT Server and fax systems. Solutions like RightFax were solid money makers for the channel. Now, Digium has taken the small but significant step with Fax for Asterisk. Don’t underestimate the importance of the news.

Contributing blogger Len Sandy covers VoIP in the IT channel. 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.