What is Asterisk?
That’s a good question to ask.
Most people think that Asterisk is an open source PBX. In reality Asterisk is much more then that.
Asterisk is a telephony platform
Asterisk is the world’s leading open source telephony engine and tool kit. Offering flexibility unheard of in the world of proprietary communications, Asterisk empowers developers and integrators to create advanced communication solutions.
In other words, the depths of what you can do with Asterisk depends only on your imagine and capabilities.
Asterisk is a PBX
Most businesses use Asterisk as a phone system. Asterisk can be configured as the core of an IP or hybrid PBX, switching calls, managing routes, enabling features, and connecting callers with the outside world over IP, analog (POTS), and digital (T1/E1) connections.
Asterisk is a gateway
Asterisk also be built out as the heart of a media gateway, bridging the legacy PSTN to the expanding world of IP telephony. That means if you’re not quite ready to rip out the legacy PBX system you have in place you can still take advantage of the cost savings that come with leveraging IP telephony (VoIP).
In addition to its primary uses as a PBX system and a VoIP gateway, Asterisk can be used as a:
- Feature server
- Media server
- Voicemail system
- ACD system
- Hosted telephony platform
Want more information about Asterisk? Learn about Asterisk with these two educational articles: Asterisk PBX systems and Asterisk handsets.
