As the increasingly popular AstriCon 2011 event is ramping up, TMC (News - Alert) CEO Rich Tehrani took a few moments to talk with scheduled speakers to get a pulse on the industry and what to expect at the show and in the near future. This interview was with Nir Simionovich, CEO and chief architect for Greenfield Technologies Ltd/Humbug Telecom Labs Ltd. When asked about specific market trends, Simionovich pointed to cloud telephony and security.
As for the external trend with the greatest influence in the Asterisk (News - Alert) market, Simionovich believes virtualization and cloud computing have changed the Asterisk market immensely. When asked about the increasing number of traditional vendors attending AstriCon, Simionovich believes this trend indicates that Asterisk is now main stream. In relation to proprietary technologies, he feels that Asterisk supports the assumption that “No one gets fired for buying an Asterisk-based system” as it is stable, can cope with security issues and can expand and adopt to various environments.
The trend towards mobility highlights Asterisk as the ideal environment to enable Fixed Mobile Convergence (News - Alert), according to Simionovich. As for this year’s AstriCon 2011 event, he is looking forward to the unique chance to get in touch with his peers at a more personal level. As a speaker, Simionovich will be presenting two fraud cases recently investigated by Humbug. As for what to expect from the Asterisk community in the coming year, Simionovich points to more work going into security infrastructure.
Their entire conversation follows:
What market trends are you seeing with regards to Asterisk in the marketplace?
I believe that two specific trends can be attributed to Asterisk-based applications, these are: Cloud Telephony and Security. As cloud based infrastructure become more robust and reliable, be it VMWARE, XEN or EC2 – more and more businesses are migrating their applications to a cloud environment. Asterisk security and SIP Security in particular is becoming more and more important. Publicly available tools such as SIPvicious and SIPP and making life for hackers and phreakers much easier. I can see a general concern around the world regarding security and regarding the various aspects of telephony fraud, which till 2010 was more or less an obscure and undealt subject.
What external trend has had the greatest influence on the Asterisk market?
I believe that virtualization and cloud computing had changed the Asterisk market immensely. People are becoming more aware to the fact that Asterisk is the ideal tool to utilize with VMWARE and other virtualization containers, thus, the Asterisk market had changed by customers demanding to put their Asterisk services in a VM environment. Don't assume that this is simple or straight forward; however, the demand is there and is growing.
There seems to be a growing number of “traditional” vendors showing up as AstriCon. What does this say about Asterisk in the communications landscape?
It means one simple thing: “Asterisk is now main stream” - at least as I see it. If a vendor such as Cisco (News 
- Alert), which almost never exhibits at external shows is showing at AstriCon means that Cisco had realized that Asterisk is no longer this software product used by tech geeks, it's a valid business tool that has to be acknowledged and regarded as a potential partner for Cisco.
Where does Asterisk stand today in terms of market recognition compared to proprietary technologies?
There is an old saying: “No one got fired for buying IBM (News - Alert)”, when it comes to telephony, these days you can easily say: “No one got fired for buying an Asterisk-based system”. The market had realized that Asterisk's stability, ability to cope with security issues, ability to expand and adapt to various customer requirements had made it an ideal tool for businesses. Asterisk is no longer adopted by developers, it is now a valid tool in Tier-1 carriers. I believe that all Tier-1 carriers in Israel utilize Asterisk servers in some form and that says quite a lot about its acceptance and recognition.
How can vendors take advantage of the growing trend towards mobility?
Everybody talks about Fix Mobile Convergence, however, I hadn't yet seen a full solution to enable the ideal FMC solution. Asterisk is the ideal environment to enable FMC, simply because it's an application environment that can be extended and modified. Vendors need to think outside of their normal “box solutions” concept – only then will they be able to take advantage of the mobility trend.
What are you looking forward to most at AstriCon 2011? Why?
Oh, that is a broad question. I guess that for someone like me there is nothing specific that I'm looking forward to. AstriCon for me is a unique chance to get in touch with my peers at a more personal level, learn what's going to happen in the next year and be updated as much as possible.
Why are you participating at AstriCon 2011?
I'll be presenting two fraud cases that were investigated by Humbug during 2011 - The presentation will take place on Wednesday. In addition, during the Pre-Conference, I will be participating in an open Asterisk Security round table. I invite every person of attends the conference and has concerns about fraud or had been de-frauded in some form to talk to me, I'd love to hear more and see how we can make the Humbug Engine better.
What can we expect from the Asterisk community in the coming year?
I believe we'll see much more work going into security infrastructure – but hey, I think the best thing will be just to follow what the community does. The Asterisk community is a dynamic thing, it tends to change and shift as the requirements arise.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
