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Sometimes you want to share, but you don’t want to share the whole kitten caboodle.

This can be the case with shared computers, with hard drives used for multiple purposes—and for softswitches

For computers, letting other people use your computer can mean compromised security or setting that you don’t want. That’s why the User account was created, so two people could share the same computer but not the same actual computing experience.

For hard drives, there’s a similar process: partitioning. A single physical hard drive can be logically separated into two or more hard drives that for all intensive purposes are different even if they share the same enclosure and use the same spindle to access data. But different file systems can be used, and one hard drive partition can be encrypted while another is not.

Sometimes softswitch users have the same need to share but still maintain their independence. With a softswitch such as REVE System’s iTel Switch Plus, it is possible to create softswitch partitions that act as independent softswitches but are still part of one larger softswitch.

Every new softswitch partition is a completely new switch, and sub- partition switch owners can use it as an independent switch.

Just like a partitioned hard drive, the performance of a partitioned softswitch is shared among all partitions—the number of concurrent calls that the overall softswitch can provide is shared among the many softswitch partitions. So using softswitch partitions is not a way to expand capacity.

But using softswitch partitioning is a useful approach for administrators who want to offer switch access to other clients.

In the case of iTel Switch Plus, the partitioning capabilities can be quite robust.

The iTel Switch Plus offers a fully customized billing interface, and it is possible to assign domain name or IP-wise separate billing links. Parent accounts can change billing outlook at any time, and the super user can assign a separate IP switch for each partition.

Further, switch superusers can assign same switch IP with different SIP port if server has one available IP, block or unblock child partitions switches at any time, and increase or decrease call volume of any child switch partition. Administrators can hand out softswitch access while still keeping control of the overall usage of the partitions.

It is good to share. But sometimes you need to keep control, too.