Digium

Digium, Inc., a communications technology company based in Huntsville, Alabama, is a subsidiary of Sangoma Technologies. In 1999, Digium's founder Mark Spencer created Asterisk, the open source software project that can be used to turn a personal computer into a communications server or Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system. Today, Digium's core business lines include Switchvox, the Asterisk-based VoIP business phone system, Digium IP phones, and Asterisk telephony software and hardware products.[1][2] Digium continues to make Asterisk available to the global development community for free at Asterisk.org.

Digium
Subsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1999
FounderMark Spencer
Headquarters445 Jan Davis Dr NW, Huntsville, Alabama, United States
Area served
170 countries
Key people
Mark Spencer
Founder
ProductsSwitchvox Business Phone Systems (Cloud-Based and On-Premises)
Switchvox Mobile
Cloud Services
Asterisk Open Source Software
Asterisk Commercial Licensing
Asterisk Support
WebRTC
IP Phones
VoIP Gateways
Telephony Interface Cards
Asterisk Add-On Products
ParentSangoma Technologies Corporation
Websitewww.digium.com

Digium, Inc. sells all of its products and services directly to businesses and consumers. It also offers its business-to-business communications products, including Digium Cloud Services, through a worldwide network of resellers.[1]

History

In 1999, while a Computer Engineering student at Auburn University, Mark Spencer founded Linux Support Services (LSS). The high cost of buying a business phone system for LSS spurred him to use Linux and his programming skills to develop his own solution.[3][4][5] He named it Asterisk, after the programming wildcard symbol and the ”star” phone key. It enabled phone calls over the Internet, providing an alternative to hardware-dependent PBX systems at a cost as much as 80% less.[6][7]

Forbes Magazine characterized Asterisk's impact as “wreaking havoc on the multibillion-dollar phone equipment business,” and “disrupting the $7 billion market for office telecom (PBX) switches” by enabling individuals and organizations to innovate in what was previously a vendor-locked marketplace. Asterisk-based business phone systems, like Digium's Switchvox, were the first of a new generation of VoIP-based communications solutions that would emerge to compete with the telecom giants like Cisco and Avaya. Reflecting the company's shift away from Linux support to applications and enhancements for Asterisk and the development of new communications solutions, Linux Support Services was renamed Digium in 2001.[8]

Asterisk was released as open source by Spencer; today, the Asterisk Open-Source Software (OSS), the Asterisk community and forum, as well as an annual conference and expo, are all sponsored and maintained by Digium. Developers around the world continue to use Asterisk to create custom IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and other solutions for small and large organizations. They have also continued to enhance it, adding hundreds of features. It is estimated that Asterisk is currently being used by developers in 170 countries, is running on approximately 1MM servers, and is the foundation of communications systems for the majority of Fortune 500 companies.[9]

Acquisition

Sangoma Technologies Corporation (TSX VENTURE: STC) announced they entered into a definitive agreement on August 23, 2018, closing August 31, 2018 [10] Sangoma expects to pay a total purchase price of US$28 million on a debt-free and cash-free basis, subject to customary working capital adjustments. The purchase price consists of US$24.3 million in cash and 3,943,025 Sangoma common shares (representing US$3.7 million based on a ten (10) day volume weighted average price of $1.2214 per common share). Digium generated approximately US$30 million in revenue in its fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, with consolidated assets (net of cash) of approximately US$11 million, no debt and a net loss of approximately US$4 million. The transaction closed and was finalized on September 5, 2018[11]

Products and Services

Digium products and services fall into four main categories:

Business Phone Systems[12]

Digium offers Switchvox, a Unified Communications System powered by Asterisk, either as an on-premises solution or a cloud-based PBX solution.

Switchvox Mobile extends Switchvox services to employees’ mobile phones.[13]

Digium Cloud Services include Switchvox Cloud service and SIP Trunking. SIP Trunking replaces a business’ traditional, or legacy, telco connection by providing voice connectivity to an ITSP via an existing data connection (internet).[14]

Custom Telephony Hardware and Software for Asterisk

Asterisk Commercial Licensing and Support – An Asterisk commercial license provides legal means of using and modifying Asterisk for a product without making the resulting code open source.[15]

Asterisk Support – Digium offers support services for developers and organizations deploying Asterisk.[16]

Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) – Digium's Respoke is a cloud-based web communications platform providing a simplified way for developers to add secure video and chat features to mobile apps or websites.[17]

IP Phones - Digium manufactures and markets VoIP phones designed for Asterisk-based phone systems, including Switchvox as well as other Asterisk-based systems.[18]

VoIP Gateways - Digium manufactures and markets appliances that allow conversion of a legacy telephony connection (E1/T1/PRI) to a VoIP connection using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).[19]

Telephony Interface Cards – Digium produces interface cards to connect IP PBX, IVR, VoIP Gateway or custom telephony solutions to the public telephone network. Digital, Analog and Hybrid cards enable connections between Asterisk and analog equipment (faxes, phones, lines); T1, E1, J1, and ISDN-BRI interfaces; and mixed mode environments.[20] Voice Compression cards enhance the capabilities of Asterisk in VoIP and hybrid environments by digitally compressing voice signals.[21]

Asterisk Add-On Products - Digium markets proprietary enhancements for Asterisk, including Fax for Asterisk, IVR Prompts, the Digium Phone Module for Asterisk License, G.729 and Echo Cancellation.[22]

Channel Partner Program

Digium's tiered program authorizes channel partners to sell Digium Cloud Services, the Switchvox Unified Communications system, or custom Asterisk communications solutions.[23]

Asterisk Training and Certification Program

Digium offers paid introductory and advanced Asterisk training courses and two Asterisk professional certifications (dCAA and dCAP).[24]

Asterisk Open Source Project & Community

Asterisk provides developers with a free, open source framework that simplifies the process of building communications systems. Digium has continued to sponsor Asterisk as an open source project since 1999, distributing it under the terms of the GNU GPL v2 license.[25]

In turn, this community of developers – now spanning 170 countries - continues to improve Asterisk and enhance its capabilities.[26]

AstriCon

Since 2004, Digium has hosted the official Asterisk user conference and expo called AstriCon. Geared to a wide audience of Asterisk developers, systems integrators, service providers, users and entrepreneurs, conference sessions focus on trends in Asterisk use, new applications and technical topics.[27][28]

Asterisk Forum

The Forum enables Asterisk developers around the world to communicate, including answering each other's support questions.

AsteriskNOW

AsteriskNOW combines into one download the fundamental tools that application developers need to create custom telephony solutions with Asterisk: a complete Linux distribution with Asterisk, the DAHDI driver framework, and an administrative GUI.

Certifications

Digium, Inc. is ISO-9001:2008 certified by NSF International Strategic Registrations.[29]

Awards and recognition
  • 2016 Communications Solutions Product of the Year (Switchvox)[30]
  • 2016 Unified Communications Product of the Year (Switchvox Cloud)[31]
  • 2016 WebRTC Product of the Year (Respoke)[32]
  • 2016 Internet Telephony Product of the Year (Digium IP Phones)[33]
  • 2016 CRN 5-Star Partner Program[34]
  • 2016 CRN Women of the Channel award (Leslie Conway, Vice President of Global Marketing)[35]
  • 2015 CRN Channel Chief award (Steve Harvey, VP Worldwide Sales)[36]
  • 2011 Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award[37]
  • 2008 eWeek Channel Insider Product of the Year, VoIP (Digium Asterisk Business Edition)[38]
  • 2008 eWeek Top 100 Most Influential People in IT (Mark Spencer)[39]
  • 2008 InfoWorld Best of Open Source Software (BOSSIE) Award[40]
  • 2006 Inc.com 30 Under 30 Coolest Entrepreneurs (Mark Spencer, #17)[41]
gollark: Neural networks. So buzzword.
gollark: Why is my documents folder 25GB?
gollark: Apparently my `.config` folder is 1GB.
gollark: ```Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted ondev 4049896 0 4049896 0% /devrun 4093740 1156 4092584 1% /run/dev/mapper/arch-root 62914560 36713744 25937136 59% /tmpfs 4093740 32672 4061068 1% /dev/shmtmpfs 4093740 0 4093740 0% /sys/fs/cgrouptmpfs 4093740 8236 4085504 1% /tmp/dev/sda1 1046512 72504 974008 7% /boot/dev/mapper/arch-home 163371072 142836388 20534684 88% /hometmpfs 818748 32 818716 1% /run/user/1000```
gollark: Well, my server holds other stuff, and it has 1TB.

References
  1. "Digium Company". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  2. ""Dial D for Disruption," Forbes Magazine, 3/24/2006". Forbes Magazine. Forbes. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  3. ""Dial D for Disruption," Forbes Magazine, 3/24/2006". Forbes Magazine. Forbes. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  4. "Inc.com names Mark Spencer of Digium to its "30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs" Feature, July 13, 2006". Inc.com. Inc.com. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  5. "Asterisk VoIP News, "The Asterisk Story."". Asterisk VoIP News. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  6. ""Dial D for Disruption," Forbes Magazine, 3/24/2006". Forbes Magazine. Forbes. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  7. "Inc.com names Mark Spencer of Digium to its "30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs" Feature, July 13, 2006". Inc.com. Inc.com. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  8. ""Dial D for Disruption," Forbes Magazine, 3/24/2006". Forbes Magazine. Forbes. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  9. "Asterisk.org". Asterisk. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  10. "DIGIUM ANNOUNCES TRANSFORMATIVE ACQUISITION BY SANGOMA - Phone Systems Powered by Asterisk". www.digium.com. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  11. "Sangoma Completes Acquisition of Digium - NASDAQ.com". NASDAQ.com. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  12. "Digium Business Phone Systems". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  13. "Digium Mobility Business Phone Systems". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  14. "Digium Products - SIP Trunk". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  15. "Digium Asterisk Licensing". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  16. "Digium Asterisk Support". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  17. "Digium Respoke". Respoke. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  18. "Digium Products - IP Phones". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  19. "Digium Products - VoIP Gateways". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  20. "Digium Products - Telephony Cards". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  21. "Digium Products - Telephony Cards and Voice Compression". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  22. "Digium Products and Software". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  23. "Digium Partners". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  24. "Asterisk Training". Digium. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  25. "Asterisk Software Products". Asterisk.org. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  26. "ICS Communications LLC - Asterisk". ICS Communications LLC. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  27. "Asterisk.org AstriCon User Conference". Asterisk.org. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  28. "Digium Announces Keynote Speakers for Astricon 2016". PR Newswire. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  29. "NSF ISR Client List Standard". NSF-ISR. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  30. "TMC Announces Recipients of the 2016 Communications Solutions Products of the Year Award". TMC Net. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  31. "Winners of the 2016 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award Announced". TMC Net. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  32. "TMC Announces 2016 WebRTC Product of the Year Award Winners". Web RTC World. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  33. "TMC Announces 2016 INTERNET TELEPHONY Product of the Year Award Winners". TMC Net. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  34. "2016 Partner Program Guide". CRN.com. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  35. "2016 Women of the Channel Awards". CRN.com. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  36. "2015 Channel Chiefs". CRN.com. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  37. "Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Digium's Switchvox SMB Unified Communications System as the Best in Terms of Cost Effectiveness and Added Value". Frost & Sullivan. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  38. "Channel Insider`s 2008 Channel Products of the Year". channelinsider.com. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  39. "100 Most Influential People in IT". eWeek. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  40. "Best of Open Source Software Awards *2008". Info World from IDG. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  41. "Catching Up With The 2006 30 Under 30 Alumni". Inc.com. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
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