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IBM To Run VoIP On Linux

Posted by timothy on from the packetized dept.

hrhsoleil writes "Johnny Barnes, IBM's vice president of global IT solutions and standards, told attendees at a TechTarget conference this week that his company plans to migrate at least 80% of its more than 300,000 employees to voice over IP by 2008. The project will replace approximately 900 PBXs around the world with regional IP installations. IBM's server-based IP telephony platform is going to run on Linux."

13 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Big Blue vs. The Banna Republic Phone Company by silentbozo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is IBM going to handle irate state-owned telecos who are suddenly deprived of IBM monies? Will they grease the wheels with payola (less than they were paying for phone calls) or will Big Blue just tell them to go take a hike? Interested businesses want to know... is it safe for anyone to try and get around the monopolies now, or is it just safe for IBM?

    Hell, here in the good old USA the "regulators" are already clamoring over the loss of all that free money that they've been siphoning out of our checkbooks. I can't imagine a state OWNED monopoly from doing any differently...

    1. Re:Big Blue vs. The Banna Republic Phone Company by dissy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > How is IBM going to handle irate state-owned telecos who are suddenly
      > deprived of IBM monies?

      IBM is using linux for VoIP. This has nothing to do with phone companys.

    2. Re:Big Blue vs. The Banna Republic Phone Company by BuckaBooBob · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well making Internal changes should do nothing but Demonstrate Prices are far too high for Voice services... When they can impliment something that does the job for less money...

      After all Not much can Stop IBM unless they start to see services on the VOIP system they are putting in.

      --
      Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
    3. Re:Big Blue vs. The Banna Republic Phone Company by router · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Shoot, also forgot to note that IBM had a global network before they sold it off to AT&T, even has its own Class A network. So they probably already route all their calls internally over this network. They also have their own 7 digit internal phone numbers. I have a feeling that their internal phone and network system is more advanced than most countries, they (we) have been doing networking for a really long time.

      andy

  2. Everything moving on to ip by modder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This may be a dumb question but....

    As more and more of our traditional communications mediums move onto IP, won't it be easier for crackers to comproomise these things?

    For example, it may be difficult for a cracker to get his hands on a pbx let alone a working environment to do his "R & D" in. But as eveything moves to using really common standards, it gets pretty easy to test this stuff in his mom's basement or whatever...

    "Hello, this is the operator." Is it?

    1. Re:Everything moving on to ip by Tailhook · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As more and more of our traditional communications mediums move onto IP, won't it be easier for crackers to compromise these things?

      At the scale IBM is talking about here; 900 PBXs worldwide, don't you think it's already closely mated to their IP network? How do you suppose they manage all those phones and voicemail? Who makes those PBXs and how well are they maintained? 10 year old firmware revisions and crappy 4 character universal passwords remotely accessible through unencrypted terminal emulation, probably. Half a dozen different vendors involved too, most likely.

      Odds are the system is already vulnerable to anyone with marginal PBX technical expertise. At least now they'll have a very contemporary platform that is up-to-date and easy to keep that way.

      Look, PBXs are the ultimate evolution of manual switchboards. It's legacy stuff and it needs to die. Moving low quality noise around does not justify proprietary hardware.

      --
      Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
  3. Re:Proof the IP6 is dead!! by spitefulcrow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You're either quite stupid, or make horrible jokes. VoIP interfaces to the regular telephone system and is transparent to the phone handset, giving you a ten-digit number like you're used to. And as to the economics of it, I think it's good. It's not going to hurt the telcos any, they gouge everyone else enough. Besides, it might not even change the services they buy anyway. I'd bet that IBM has fast fiber trunks to most of the larger facilities which just digitize everything anyway, and they're probably provided by the telcos. So instead of paying for voice/data, they'll just pay for more data. I know for a fact that they recently contracted their global private network out to AT&T.

    --
    Sorry, my karma just ran over your dogma.
  4. Great stuff for linux! by jubalj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IBM's server-based IP telephony platform will run on Linux and provide gateways for connection to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) If the IBM software is affordable/GPLd, this could mean another jump in the popularity of GNU/linux! oh.. n that VoIP thing too..

  5. You've got it all wrong by MarcQuadra · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's the most back-ass reasoning I've ever heard. Companies don't just hoarde their savings, they spend it on shit they want but can't have without savings in other areas.

    IBM isn't going to bank the savings from this Linux stuff, they're going to roll it into R&D (jobs), growth (jobs), and some bonuses for executives (trickle-down jobs, hopefully).

    If we all played by your reasoning we'd have a really... Amish way of life right now.

    Plus, this will create LINUX jobs instead of IBM-proprietary jobs, how can you argue against that?

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  6. not insignificant by benjonson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    2008 sounds like a long time away, like vague future planning. But big companies need to do long-range planning, and it is significant that IBM sees Linux as the operating system in that future. It is almost a done deal - when major corporations imagine Linux as central to the future, Linux becomes central to the future.

    --
    =-+
  7. Shameless plug by jmv · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course I'm biased, but I hope the use an open-source codec.

    --
    Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
  8. Re:That's great! by Tailhook · · Score: 4, Insightful

    economy will not gain any boost

    Please attempt to calculate the value-add of a product such as Eclipse. IBM handed that to the world for free. They did this because IBM is a smart, well run company that knows how to make itself valuable in the marketplace. Eventually they'll save a big wad of cash when they stop paying inflated prices for proprietary PBX hardware and maintenance, and in a small way that will eventually contribute to the next moral equivalent of Eclipse.

    Linux advocacy, giving AMD Opteron a huge credibility boost, one of the best JVM implementations, a world class IDE for free... You geeks need to show IBM some love. They are one of the good guys.

    --
    Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
  9. SCO v IBM, a game plan by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is just a ruse (shhhhh...) by IBM to bankrupt SCO. If SCO pays IBM to not use Linux by the gazillion truckloads, SCO goes bankrupt and Darl, being deprived of his crack allowance checks into the detox unit.
    End of lawsuit, end of lunatic newsbriefs..

    Awwwww....