"The new platforms come as the latest effort by Digium
to capitalize on enterprises' increasing interest in unified
communications (UC), which offers to move features like voice
telephony, video, messaging and collaboration services onto a
single IP-based platform -- which ostensibly helps companies cut
costs in the process. A recent studysponsored by Siemens, a UC
vendor, reported that 53 percent of large U.S. companies are
discussing, pursuing or implementing such installations.
"UC has attracted all of the major players in enterprise
messaging and VoIP. As for Digium, UC and integration with other
enterprise software is becoming a key feature of both Switchvox and
Asterisk, for which the company serves as lead commercial
sponsor.
"Asterisk, an open source VoIP PBX, has been making waves in the
market since its 1.0 release in 2004. While the coming weeks are
expected to see some incremental new features and bug fixes with
the launch of its 1.6.1 version, it's the upcoming 1.8 version that
will deliver several really slick features, Asterisk community
manager John Todd told InternetNews.com."
