Choosing whether to buy an
on-premise phone system or sign up for cloud based business phone
service is frequently a complex choice. Much depends on your business needs and the
size of your organization along with the number of extensions required. If you
have 15 or less employees or
multiple small offices, then choosing hosted business VoIP often remains the
preferred choice. For larger companies with in place existing
phone lines or a PRI (T1) then other variables should be considered.
Open source Asterisk PBX software was what helped hosted cloud based phone companies become popular and affordable. The same open source Asterisk has lead to on-premise appliances becoming affordable and popular.
One relevant component that precedes all others when considering a new phone system is the status of your current carrier and if you have a contract. Do you want to switch or add other cost saving options? Many Asterisk based PBX appliances can connect to any type of a telephone provider's service whether it's traditional copper phone lines, a PRI circuit or using SIP/VoIP.
Recently a few manufacturers of Asterisk based IP-PBX appliances have produced systems when matched with their own SIP based phones are noteworthy for self-management. For those capable do-it-yourselfers these systems remain some of the best affordable UC phone systems available. Some manufacturers are recognized for other products, like Grandstream which has been making IP phones for years. Another Sangoma is known for excellent gateway cards for Asterisk installations. They now own both FreePBX and Asterisk PBX software.
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Asterisk has proven to be extremely stable and with so many installations more and more people are hearing first hand that these systems are hard to beat. See some great examples:
Top 3 Asterisk PBX Systems for SMBs
Costs for Top 3 VoIP Appliances
If you are looking at a cloud based business phone (also known as hosted VoIP), you may be interested to learn its benefits. Benefits of a Cloud Based Phone System