Top 5 Reasons for an in-house Asterisk based PBX appliance.
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.
There are Advantages to having and managing your own Phone System
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.
An On premise Asterisk Based phone system:
- You have control over your network- An Asterisk based premise phone system resides on your network. This eliminates any long distance signaling that occurs with off-premise or cloud based based VoIP systems. Communication from the phone to the PBX server is almost instantaneous, so signaling distance and latency should be non-existent. Failover: If you have traditional phone lines, the PBX can be configured to utilize them if the Internet goes out.
- Non-proprietary Open Source System- Asterisk based phone systems can use non-proprietary phones and other hardware. This will lower costs and allow for open market choices for vendor neutral hardware. Need a phone, buy it from many online sources.
- Lower ongoing operational costs- Having your own in-house PBX saves money over time when compared to a hosted model, which probably has lower upfront costs. A business owned phone system will typically result in lower monthly operating costs when spread out over time. This is especially recognized for larger company systems with a higher number of users. The larger the system the more the savings when compared to a cloud based service.
- Extra cost savings when SIP trunking- Using SIP trunks for low cost calls, both domestic and International, will save money over traditional carriers. When you have your own phone system, you choose which carriers to buy service from. This gives you pricing flexibility.
- Expandability- Lower cost to add users and extra extensions. Since Asterisk systems are
non-proprietary adding more capacity merely requires the hardware, not
add-on licensing fees. Users at home can
set up remote extensions easily without additional software licensing.
Asterisk based VoIP systems are lower in cost, easy to setup and straightforward to manage.
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
Some of the benefits of a Hosted VoIP Phone System
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