Voice is undergoing a transformation in the enterprise market. Not only is a technical transformation underway, the shift from TDM-based switching to VoIP solutions, but also the ways in which businesses think about and use their voice solutions are also undergoing radical change.

The days of skyrocketing costs, proprietary call control, vendor lock-ins, and TDM PBXs are slowly drawing to a close, as the idea of voice as a data center solution takes hold, including: commodity servers; voice and voice messaging applications available on any end point (phones, soft phones, mobile phones, PDAs) on a distributed IP network. Finally, Moore’s Law will apply to enterprise telephony as costs go down and innovation goes up.

A key component to enable voice in the data center is a new generation of open source, SIP-based VoIP solutions. These new platforms will deliver a much-anticipated freedom of choice when it comes to hardware, software, support and services. While open source VoIP isn’t ready to take over the telephony world yet, it is ready for its close up. It will become the vehicle that will help to establish and increase the adoption of a standards-based call control common denominator. With an established standards-based call control platform—similar to the way HTML enables Web interface technology—users will be able to experience integrated voice services in a seamless way, and as part of their overall Internet experience.

Free ‘n’ Easy

Open source means software in which the source code is open for public view and modification. With open source VoIP, businesses would receive their call control software, such as PBX, call routing, and messaging software, for free, without licensing fees. They would be able to run their VoIP communications software on off-the-shelf Linux servers, use media gateways and standards-based phones from multiple vendors, and pay only for customer support or professional services, if desired. In addition, enterprises would be able to modify the solution in order to modify their own VoIP services, either by working with third party programmers, including those in the open source community, or creating the code themselves.  In short, enterprises will be able to customize voice solutions for their particular requirements, just as they customize their data and applications environments.

Along with significant cost savings, open source VoIP will drive the transformation of voice from being a standalone stovepipe to becoming part of a company’s IT infrastructure. This shift, in turn, will drive innovation, diversification and commoditization in the voice technology market. The shift will also lower costs and improve customer experience by giving enterprises the freedom to decide how to deploy VoIP.

The move to an open source will likely make a serious dent in the $5 billion per year enterprise PBX market, as enterprises find they can use SIP-based open source IP PBXs on commodity Linux servers, all for a fraction of the cost of the current solutions model that is built around proprietary hardware, software and applications.

As an example of an open source business model, Pingtel offers an all SIP-based, open source IP PBX solution packaged in an enterprise-class distribution under a Linux-style subscription license. This approach combines the best attributes of open source development, such as low cost, adaptability and flexibility, with the reliability and support enterprises require for voice applications.

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