asterisk users - Jun 2005 - Case studies for Asterisk Voicemail

I'm planning an Asterisk Voicemail system of around 3000 users spread 
across several sites, each site connected by a fast network to a central 
site. We're considering 2 models:

- Central Voicemail with VoIP calls from remote sites (easier to 
administer the system(s)).

- Voicemail server at each site with shared database and NFS server at 
the central site (easier to connect to the existing PBXs for MWI, etc).

The customer would like some case studies of people who've done this 
before, even if it's just "Yes, we've done it and are happy with
the
results". Now, I've implemented systems of this size with IBM 
Websphere
Voice Response, but not with Asterisk, so don't have case studies to 
offer, despite being pretty confident it will work.

Does anyone have a production Asterisk Voicemail system in this range 
using either of these models and would be willing to put their hand up 
and say "Yes, we're pleased with our system"?

-- 
Alistair Cunningham,
Integrics Ltd,
+44 (0)7870 699 479
http://integrics.com/

On Thu, Jun 16, 2005 at 03:27:49PM +0100, Alistair Cunningham
wrote:
> I'm planning an Asterisk Voicemail system of around 3000 users spread 
> across several sites, each site connected by a fast network to a central 
> site. We're considering 2 models:
> 
> - Central Voicemail with VoIP calls from remote sites (easier to 
> administer the system(s)).
This will work.
> - Voicemail server at each site with shared database and NFS server at 
> the central site (easier to connect to the existing PBXs for MWI, etc).
I really don't think that you want to run NFS over the wide area.
Not only do you have to be very very careful security-wise (i.e. do
it over IPSec or something and make sure your NFS is not visible from
the Internet itself) but do you really want to deal with the local
VM server wedging when something funny happens on the network between
the remote and central sites? It's not impossible but IMO you're asking
for trouble doing it like this.

-w

On 6/16/05, Alistair Cunningham <acunningham@integrics.com>
wrote:
> I'm planning an Asterisk Voicemail system of around 3000 users spread
> across several sites, each site connected by a fast network to a central
> site. We're considering 2 models:
> 
> - Central Voicemail with VoIP calls from remote sites (easier to
> administer the system(s)).
> 
> - Voicemail server at each site with shared database and NFS server at
> the central site (easier to connect to the existing PBXs for MWI, etc).
I would suggest using the Realtime Voicemail setup in a MySQL (or
other) database.

http://voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Asterisk%20RealTime%20Voicemail

This works well for us with about 400 users (but still under
development so not heavily tested).  It makes updates and
configurations much easier and could easily be share with many
Asterisk machines.

Michael

Several people have responded with architecture suggestions. While these 
are welcome, I'm happy with the architecture options planned, having 
done many large voicemail implementations on products other than Asterisk.

What I had hoped to get from Asterisk-Users and Asterisk-Biz was not a 
technical discussion (though I don't mind getting this too), but reports 
of people who already have systems like this so I can put the customer's 
mind at ease that they're not the first people to use Asterisk voicemail 
with 3000 users. I should have made this more clear in my first email.

Alistair Cunningham,
Integrics Ltd,
+44 (0)7870 699 479
http://integrics.com/


Alistair Cunningham wrote:
> I'm planning an Asterisk Voicemail system of around 3000 users spread 
> across several sites, each site connected by a fast network to a central 
> site. We're considering 2 models:
> 
> - Central Voicemail with VoIP calls from remote sites (easier to 
> administer the system(s)).
> 
> - Voicemail server at each site with shared database and NFS server at 
> the central site (easier to connect to the existing PBXs for MWI, etc).
> 
> The customer would like some case studies of people who've done this 
> before, even if it's just "Yes, we've done it and are happy
with the
> results". Now, I've implemented systems of this size with IBM 
Websphere
> Voice Response, but not with Asterisk, so don't have case studies to 
> offer, despite being pretty confident it will work.
> 
> Does anyone have a production Asterisk Voicemail system in this range 
> using either of these models and would be willing to put their hand up 
> and say "Yes, we're pleased with our system"?
>

On 6/16/05, Bill McLaughlin <bill@cjroofing.com>
wrote:
> Vonage uses Asterisk, and they have a lot more than 3000 customers.
That should help your argument!

Michael

Are you sure about that?

I know Freshtel.net uses a highly customized version of asterisk.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
> bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Bill McLaughlin
> Sent: Thursday, 16 June 2005 2:12 PM
> To: mstearne@entermix.com; 'Asterisk Users Mailing List -
Non-Commercial
> Discussion'
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Case studies for Asterisk Voicemail
> 
> Vonage uses Asterisk, and they have a lot more than 3000 customers.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Michael
> Stearne
> Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 11:53 AM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Case studies for Asterisk Voicemail
> 
> On 6/16/05, Alistair Cunningham <acunningham@integrics.com> wrote:
> > Several people have responded with architecture suggestions. While
these
> > are welcome, I'm happy with the architecture options planned,
having
> > done many large voicemail implementations on products other than
> Asterisk.
> >
> > What I had hoped to get from Asterisk-Users and Asterisk-Biz was not
a
> > technical discussion (though I don't mind getting this too), but
reports
> > of people who already have systems like this so I can put the
customer's
> > mind at ease that they're not the first people to use Asterisk
voicemail
> > with 3000 users. I should have made this more clear in my first
email.
> >
> 
> It was clear developers just like to put their 2 cents in I guess. :-)
> 
> What you might do is contact a comapny like http://www.broadvoice.com/
> or http://voicepulse.com/ and just ask if they are using Asterisk for
> their voicemail systems for their customers. I would think they might
> be using Asterisk for their systems and they have the amounts of users
> you're looking at.
> 
> Michael
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Can anyone recommend a low cost name brand server that will not share
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