If a GUI is so important wouldnt Cisco have one for their routers/switches? Setting up extensions in Asterisk is no harder than setting up an access list on a router. If you need a GUI then maybe you should not be doing it.
What a 7970? A 7970 looks like it should be a video phone but it isn't. About the only thing usefull you can do with that color LCD is browse the internet, but who is going to do that when they are sitting in front of a computer. If you want to do a video conference you will need to purchase the VT software and a webcam.
I can speak from experience on this. I work for a company that provides IT services for small companies. We implemented Cisco Callmanager at one of our clients and Asterisk at another. The client running CallManager has about 200 employees and when all was said and done cost about $250k (2 Call Managers, Unity, IPCC, router, switches, 7940s & 7960s). The client running Asterisk has about 15 employees and when all was said and done the cost was about $1000 (Asterisk on a Dell, Digium card, Handytone phones). Both solutions provided nearly identical functionality. CallManager was a PITA to get up and running and is a major PITA to administer and troubleshoot. If a user is going to be in an IPCC queue it can take 30 minutes to set them up. I can setup a new user in Asterisk in about 5 minutes. On average I easily spend 10 hours a week managing the CallManager system and maybe 10 minutes week on the Asterisk system, granted the Asterisk system is being used by a much smaller company. Asterisk is a full blown PBX that can be the best solution for small companies voice needs. It does have its limitations, mainly redundancy and scalability. Even with its limitations it has been a solid solution compared to the Cisco product. Some things are so simple with Asterisk yet nearly impossible with Cisco.
"It's so important and is probably the major problem facing Linux as viable replacements for Win2000 servers."
Exchange/Outlook is great but I think the real barrier is Active Directory. With AD you get:
organizational units: easy way to manage users and computers
group policy: easy way to enforce policies
authorized servers: easy way to prevent rogue servers
forests: easy way to manage multiple domains
and more
Windows takes the cake when it comes to large scale infrastructure management. I hate to be a Microsoft promotion but 2003 server has some fantastic office sharing capabilities that are not available from an open source project.
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If a GUI is so important wouldnt Cisco have one for their routers/switches? Setting up extensions in Asterisk is no harder than setting up an access list on a router. If you need a GUI then maybe you should not be doing it.
What a 7970? A 7970 looks like it should be a video phone but it isn't. About the only thing usefull you can do with that color LCD is browse the internet, but who is going to do that when they are sitting in front of a computer. If you want to do a video conference you will need to purchase the VT software and a webcam.
I can speak from experience on this. I work for a company that provides IT services for small companies. We implemented Cisco Callmanager at one of our clients and Asterisk at another. The client running CallManager has about 200 employees and when all was said and done cost about $250k (2 Call Managers, Unity, IPCC, router, switches, 7940s & 7960s). The client running Asterisk has about 15 employees and when all was said and done the cost was about $1000 (Asterisk on a Dell, Digium card, Handytone phones). Both solutions provided nearly identical functionality. CallManager was a PITA to get up and running and is a major PITA to administer and troubleshoot. If a user is going to be in an IPCC queue it can take 30 minutes to set them up. I can setup a new user in Asterisk in about 5 minutes. On average I easily spend 10 hours a week managing the CallManager system and maybe 10 minutes week on the Asterisk system, granted the Asterisk system is being used by a much smaller company. Asterisk is a full blown PBX that can be the best solution for small companies voice needs. It does have its limitations, mainly redundancy and scalability. Even with its limitations it has been a solid solution compared to the Cisco product. Some things are so simple with Asterisk yet nearly impossible with Cisco.
Exchange/Outlook is great but I think the real barrier is Active Directory. With AD you get:
Windows takes the cake when it comes to large scale infrastructure management. I hate to be a Microsoft promotion but 2003 server has some fantastic office sharing capabilities that are not available from an open source project.