Packet Island announced general availability of ‘PacketSmart for Asterisk’, a complete VoIP lifecycle management solution for the open source Asterisk PBX.

Packet Island’s ‘PacketSmart for Asterisk’ is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that has been designed to target the VoIP lifecycle management needs of VARs and SMBs deploying Asterisk. The solution is based on Asterisk software agents and purpose-built micro-appliances that work with the highly scalable PacketSmart SaaS platform, hosted at a Tier-1 data center. The Asterisk software agents which are installed on the Asterisk PBX perform continuous monitoring of all VoIP calls terminating at the PBX. The 4”x4” micro-appliances are complementary to the software agents, in that unlike the software agents, they can be easily moved around the network to isolate and troubleshoot network issues affecting VoIP quality.

The “PacketSmart for Asterisk” solution has three distinct functions:
*Network assessment for VoIP
*VoIP troubleshooting
*Ongoing VoIP SLA monitoring

During the deployment planning phase, the micro-appliances can be used to simulate live VoIP traffic on the SMB network, to identify and fix problems before the Asterisk VoIP deployment. After Asterisk deployment, the Packet Island software agent that is left installed on the Asterisk PBX continues to collect detailed quality metrics that can be used by the SME and VAR for SLA monitoring and to isolate and troubleshoot transient VoIP quality issues. For multi-site deployments with multiple Asterisk PBXs, the software agents can be employed to do periodic network assessments to ensure that the inter-Asterisk connectivity continues to support good VoIP quality.

Netswitch, a technology management company based in San Francisco, has been using the ‘PacketSmart for Asterisk’ solution for Asterisk deployment planning at the US offices of a large multi-national company. “We looked at several VoIP management solutions in the market, but none of them matched the flexibility and ease-of-use we found in Packet Island’s solution. The micro-appliances are truly plug-and-play and can be easily moved around in the network to isolate congestion points and evaluate routes. Furthermore, with the software agents installed on the Asterisk PBX, we can now offer our customer a continuous monitoring service that is essential in staying on top of transient congestion issues that affect VoIP” said Stanley Li, CEO of Netswitch.

“Open source Asterisk is creating a huge disruption in the PBX marketplace. However, one of the big challenges in deploying Asterisk with VoIP today is in ensuring that the customer’s network is ready for VoIP before the Asterisk deployment, and to stay on top of transient VoIP quality issues that invariably crop up as the network evolves. The problem with current VoIP assessment and monitoring solutions in the market is that they are more expensive than the entire Asterisk PBX. With ‘PacketSmart for Asterisk’ we are offering the industry’s first SaaS solution that has been specifically created for the VoIP lifecycle management needs of the Asterisk market. Instead of paying thousands of dollars up front, our customers pay us an annual service fee that works out to tens of dollars a month“ said Praveen Kumar, President of Packet Island Inc.