Digium, the company behind the open source internet protocol (IP) telephony enabler, Asterisk, has revealed the names of two new senior executives in charge of the technical overseeing of the Asterisk product.
Digium says that Matt Jordon has taken on the role of project leader on Asterisk, whilst Mark Michelson has become the platform’s technical lead.
The announcement follows the recent departure from Digium of one of the organisation’s celebrated leading lights, Kevin Fleming – a name associated over many years with the successful on-going development and global deployment of Asterisk.
Over the past few years through Asterisk, Digium has grown into one of the dominant providers of open source software for IP telephony and business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) across the globe.
Through its enabling of companies, business VoIP providers and VoIP resellers to have the complete freedom to set up effective IP-based business phone systems and other IP telephony facilities, Digium and Asterisk have often been seen as bywords for progress in the general IP telephony industry.
Smaller companies in particular have increasingly sought the assistance of a business VoIP provider or VoIP reseller in order to reduce the costs of their IP telephony plans. For such companies, a hosted business VoIP package set at an affordable monthly rate is often a welcome alternative to the considerable expense of deploying in-house business VoIP or IP telephony software.
Such hosted VoIP services have often been dependent on Asterisk open source software for their function – with many in the industry saying they strongly believe Fleming’s energy and talents have contributed considerably to Asterisk’s effectiveness.
It could even be argued that Asterisk software, along with session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking, has ultimately been the main enabler of IP telephony amongst such smaller businesses.
Industry commentators will naturally now be looking to Jordan and Michelson to continue in Fleming’s esteemed footsteps.
