Elastix is an appliance software that integrates the best tools available for Asterisk-based PBXs into a single, easy-to-use interface. It also adds its own set of utilities and allows for the creation of third party modules to make it the best software package available for open source telephony.
The goals of Elastix are reliability, modularity and ease-of-use. These characteristics added to the strong reporting capabilities make it the best choice for implementing an Asterisk-based PBX.
This month we would like to make public our appreciation to Alfio Muñoz for his contributions to the Elastix Project. Alfio (Megabyte ) is Elastix Certified Engeneer (ECE), active member of our community that right now is writing a book about Elastix.
Alfio is responsible for registering the Elastix Spanish IRC channel (#elastix-es ) in the freenode network. Every day there is more people helping and being help using this tool.
Probably the most important project, related to Elastix, that Alfio is working now is the book “Elastix con Sabor Merengue” that soon would be release with a the free license GNU FDL. The book would be available in the Internet for the whole community. Here you can read some of the first drafts. (Spanish)
Alfio would participate in the free software congress “COSESOL ” at Dominican Republic promoting Elastix with practical demonstrations.
Congratulations Alfio for your work and thank you for supporting the Elastix project.
After the success of the first two Elastix Certified Technician (ECT) training courses we are now offering a new date in México city. The Elastix Certified Technician (ECT) is a training program intendet to enthusiasts who wish to take their first steps in gaining practical experience from Elastix experts.
This 20 hour course is designed to be performed over a period of three days.
After successfully passing the certification exam, the student will be ready to manage and give support to Elastix PBX systems. He will also be able to pass the ECE certification by only taking 20 hours of the 40 hour course.
The Elastix Project has the honor to present Emiliano Vazquez (Gamba47 ) as the July 2009 community member of the month. Emiliano is new to our community, but he has been extremely active in the Spanish and English forums. Since late May, when he registered in the forums, Emiliano has participate more than 460 times with helpful information for other members in our community.
Thank you, Emiliano, for your support, and congratulations for doing a great job.
It has been a while since the release of Elastix 1.0. There have been a
lot of ideas since then that were scheduled for the next release.
Meanwhile, we released the Call Center and Developer modules as GPL and
a lot of other useful add-ons. These releases have brought satisfaction
to all of us in Elastix. Our community has grown and our downloads are
almost half a million in total.
Finally, the wait for Elastix 2.0 is over, and time for new ideas has
come. We have started development of this new version and we will try to
include as many ideas and suggestions from the community as possible.
For those of you that just can't wait, here is a preview of some of the
main features that have been scheduled for Elastix 2.0:
Asterisk 1.6
Elastix Operator Panel release
Meeting / Presentation sharing
Advanced reports
Improvements to the Call Center Module
Better integration between all components
Asterisk 1.6
This is a very important migration that we'll be working on. Our focus
will be mainly on taking advantage of Asterisk 1.6's performance
improvements.
Elastix Operator Panel
The same old Flash Operator Panel (FOP) will still be available.
Nevertheless we have decided to develop our own alternative, specially
now that FOP version 2 would not be open source and that is not
compatible with the GPL license that Elastix uses.
It is our hope that this alternative Elastix Operator Panel will be
available for any distro in the future including those not based on
Elastix.
The Elastix Operator Panel will be Ajax-based instead of Flash-based.
Our main objective will be performance improvement.
A New Way to do Meetings
Since the release of Elastix 1.0, we have seen how meeting/conference
solutions have improved. A clear example of this is the success of Webextm. Elastix will stay follow the latest trends that the
latest communications technology demands.
The development of this feature will be divided in two phases. The first
phase will be included in the Elastix 2.0 release and will integrate
telephony, chat, file sharing and document presentations. The second
phase will add further functionality gradually, after the release of
Elastix 2.0.
We are sure that the implementation of this feature will maintain
Elastix as the leader among Unified Communications distros worldwide.
Advanced Reports
One of the strongest features of Elastix is our reports. Our development
framework has improved and will now allow us to improve our reports even
more.
In addition to improving data reports, they will be nicer looking and
friendly. The new Elastix framework, based on PHP, includes
Ajax-management libraries that will allow us to improve user
interaction, among other things.
Improvements in the Call Center Module
Elastix has been a pioneer in releasing a fully-functional open source
call center solution. Other distros have chosen to close and market
their solutions. However, Elastix gives you FREE download of this module
under GPL.
The Call Center module gives Elastix insights in the area of large
installations.
Among the improvements scheduled for this module, we will work on
streamlining the installation and update processes, and performance
upgrades. There will be better integration between the communications
components of Elastix 2.0 such as PBX, IM, Fax, Email, Agenda and
others. We will also focus particularly on the integration of the Agenda
with the rest of the components. This will help boost efficiency in the
companies that use Elastix.
Of course this is just a sample of the new features in Elastix 2.0. We
hope that Elastix 2.0 will see more contributions from the community so
we can include as many of your suggestions as possible.
Interview with José Luis Landivar at TMC's Internet Telephony Magazine
Thursday, 09 July 2009
Internet Telephony, a popular VoIP magazine, interviewed José Luis Landivar, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Elastix. In the interview, Landivar talks about the beginnings of Elastix. He also emphasizes that the two goals PaloSanto Solutions (creator of Elastix) always keeps in mind are stability and ease-of-use. PaloSanto keeps Elastix stable by continually releasing bug-fixes. Elastix's ease-of-use is reflected in the fact that it has been translated to 22 languages. Compared to competitors, that makes Elastix one of the most international of VoIP software packages out there.
When asked if Elastix will ever be closed source in order to make more money, Landivar guarantees that Elastix will always be open source. PaloSanto generates revenue by providing training, ready-made hardware, support and customization.
José Luis Landivar ends the interview by describing how PaloSanto did not reinvent the wheel to create Elastix, but rather used pieces available from other software, and writing code to add features they saw as needed.
This month we would like to make public our appreciation to Haamed Kouhfallah for his contribution to our community and the Elastix project.
Haamed, who is from Iran, is responsible for the translation of Elastix to Persian. He is currently creating a RPM that will make Elastix more accessible for people who speak Persian. Haamed has also created the site VoIP-Iran.com that is a general VoIP forum in the Farsi Language with an special section dedicated to Elastix.
Thanks to people like Haamed, Elastix breaks the language barriers and its quickly becoming more accessible to people around the world.
A lot of people might know Haamed from the Elastix forums. He is the moderator of the Asterisk Programing forum .
Thanks, Haamed, for all you have done for our Elastix community!
