VoipNow 2.0.4 and Automation
VoipNow 2.0.4 is available. It also includes VoipNow Automation, the latest public release before GA version. GA version will be out at Parallels Summit 2010, maybe the largest hosting gathering in US. I am saying maybe because I don’t know what HostingCon will do this year and in the past last two years it was a disappointment. Anyway, 4PSA is a Silver Sponsor at Parallels Summit, so you are kindly invited to attend and visit us there.
You can see above a picture of the nice VoipNow 2.0.4 cake my colleagues “developed” for the internal release party. It was pretty big 
How to test VoipNow Automation?
VoipNow Automation installs automatically with VoipNow 2.0.4, in order to access it you only need a license key that enables Automation. Such a license key is available here (fixed key, thanks), pay attention that this is an evaluation license and you can not install it on a production server.
The front-end (store and portal for the customer) is available here, usually it must be deployed on your company’s website.
It is not possible to upgrade from the previous release of VoipNow 2.0.4 with VoipNow Automation Beta to the final VoipNow 2.0.4 that contains Automation RC. More details here.
VoipNow Automation Licensing
VoipNow Automation will be licensed per customer (do not confuse with extension, the customer is your end customer, a single entity that pays yours bills). There will be only leased licensing for VoipNow Automation. In fact starting with 1 March 2010 we will change licensing for all our VoipNow Platform products and we will withdraw the owned licensing option for service providers. More about this in a future post. The price for VoipNow Automation will start at 1EUR/customer per month and will lower with the number of customers. This will include a higher level of support for service providers and access to our consulting resources in order to help service providers grow the business faster.
VoipNow Automation Special Offer
Last week I made an offer to subscribe to a list in order to get an owned license of VoipNow Automation for up to 1000 customers. We received quite a strong interest on this, unfortunately I didn’t mention how someone should register on the list (other that commenting on the article). These being said, we declare the promotion open. The price of the license is 1000EUR and is subject to the optional 30% per year SUS (free updates and SUS support for another year). The offer is valid until 20 February 2010, to take advantage of the offer, please send an email to sales@4psa.com with reference code: OAUTO in email subject.
VoipNow Automation Release Candidate
We are showing VoipNow Automation Release Candidate at ITExpo 2010 East. In fact, we are going to release it in the next days with VoipNow Professional 2.0.4 GA. There are several important changes if we compare it with VoipNow Automation Beta, the most important being the support for Cloud Platform Bricks. This was something that we initially decided to bring in a future version of Automation, but eventually we reconsidered and decided to put it in the first public version, because there were too many changes for our customers.
What are Cloud Platform Bricks?
Cloud Platform Bricks is the API that allows the product to extend with support for different service delivery platforms like VoipNow Professional, VoipNow Core, Plesk, Open-Xchange etc. It comes with special primitives called bricks that allow the service provider to define service plans for a particular platform, provision services, charge customers for these, and suspend/terminate service.
Why we preferred to ship this in the first version?
The main reason is that would have been quite difficult for us to migrate from the simple interface we previously had to the Cloud Platform Bricks later, when the service provider has deployments. The second reason is the feedback we received from customers that was easy to understand: “This is very good, but I want to use VoipNow Automation for my other services as well.” Without Cloud Bricks, the implementation of different cloud services would have been quite difficult, meaning that we would have had to disappoint many customers. I am convinced that we already disappointed some customers who eagerly waited for Automation, but unfortunately, we did not have much of a choice.
How powerful is Automation on the first release?
From the architecture point of view, I do not think that we have any competition. From the features perspective, I know software packages that are able to do more. They miss fundamental parts of Automation, but when comparing side by side they have more features. Our objective was to build a very good platform and to develop it based on customer demands, not to pack thousands of features on a common package. Your feedback in developing Automation will be highly appreciated.
How will VoipNow Automation be licensed?
You will be able to get VoipNow Automation only leased licensed, with a pay-as-you-grow licensing (price per active customer account). VoipNow Automation is not going to be available as owned license. This is a risky move for us as a company because the service provider is essentially switching risk to us as a vendor (the service provider can drop the contract with us anytime if not fully satisfied). In this case, I consider the risk to be a big opportunity, because when we provide the right support to the customer, he grows and eventually we grow.
We are thinking to offer 50 owned licenses for up to 1,000 accounts at a special price for the first 50 customers interested. We want to do this in order to sustain the customers that will most likely get us the most valuable feedback. Please comment on this post if you think this is a good idea.
We will have more stuff about Automation soon; this was just a short post from Miami.
Welcome to ITExpo 2010 East – Discount Code
We want to let you know that during ITExpo 2010 East we will run a nice promotion – 15% discount for purchases of new 4PSA software owned licenses.
When you make the order in our online store, please use the discount code itexpo15.
The discount code is valid until 22 January 2010.
Once again, we expect you to visit us at ITExpo East at booth 618.
The Right Solution
As you have probably noticed, in December last year we updated our website. Together with this update a new Solutions menu appeared. While there is still much room for improvements, we really hoped that VoipNow * range of solutions will be easier to understand for customers.
After these updates it looks like customers still find some things confusing. While we plan to fix them ASAP, I think that I can answer to most confusing questions in a short post:
Question: Should I replace VoipNow Professional with VoipNow Core?
Most likely you cannot do this, because they are complementary solutions. VoipNow Core is not a PBX, so you cannot offer PBX services to your customers like you do with VoipNow Professional. Instead you can offer SIP trunking, wholesale VoIP services and you can build the core of your VoIP network by interconnecting it with ISDN PRI (SS7 will also be added).
So, VoipNow Core and VoipNow Professional are different solutions, but they are integrated in the VoipNow Platform (the generic name for the VoipNow ecosystem), which means that you can connect your VoipNow Professional servers to VoipNow Core and keep call rating and all billing components at the VoipNow Core level. Of course, you might be fine (based on the type of services you offer) with only one:
- If you offer only PBX services and you work with a decent VoIP wholesaler – you don’t need VoipNow Core at this stage. But our experience shows that you will definitely need it later.
- If you offer only SIP trunking and wholesale services using a custom Cisco, Open Source, etc. solution, the migration to VoipNow Core is the best thing you can do in order to easily grow and manage the infrastructure.
Question: Is VoipNow Automation the right solution for me?
It depends on what you expect. VoipNow Automation is a business and operations automation software. It allows you to build an online store for the products and services you also define in Automation. In the online store customers can order your services. The output orders enter into a queue and they are deployed by VoipNow Automation. At this level VoipNow Automation works with VoipNow Professional (VoipNow Core support to be added later), i.e. it uses one of your VoipNow Professional servers to deploy the order. Automation handles recurring billing (based on the utilization gathered from VoipNow Professional), processes payments, it monitors these payments and can even suspend or terminate services. Of course, this is an oversimplified overview, but I guess that you have already realized that it cannot be used as a replacement for VoipNow Professional.
There are companies that have implemented some of the VoipNow Automation functionality into their proprietary system using the API, otherwise it would have been impossible for them to grow. So that VoipNow Automation is not absolutely required in order to build the business, but it’s an easier choice that makes more sense economically.
Question: How can I get 4Grid?
First, 4Grid is not a product itself, it is just a framework. VoipNow Core has native support for 4Grid, which means that you can add as many nodes as you wish, to support the entire infrastructure. VoipNow Professional also supports 4Grid, but it cannot be managed in the interface, meaning that implementations are harder to manage. We will add 4Grid management in the VoipNow Professional web interface later this year.
Question: How far can I go with VoipNow Core?
There are no practical limits, as the infrastructure is self arranging/multi-server. VoipNow Core can be installed on a single server (no redundancy, not recommended), on two servers (simple 4Grid Lite setup) or on four servers or more (full 4Grid setup).
Question: How far can I go with VoipNow Professional?
We have customers that put on a single server more than 3,000 extensions. You can grow to more extensions in two ways: by using multiple VoipNow Professional autonomous systems (multiple non-connected servers) or by setting-up a 4Grid cluster. Each approach is correct, for example we have customers that use more than 20 VoipNow Professional servers to deliver services to over 20,000 extensions. As hardware is quite cheap, they prefer to put only a limited number of extensions on the server.
Question: When should I use the 4Grid framework?
Don’t think about 4Grid if you have less than 20 calls per second, 300 concurrent calls or less than 3,000 extensions registered to your system. You simply don’t need it at this stage. You might want to deploy it if you know that you will grow as hell in the next 3 months (and usually no one can guarantee this) .
Don’t worry about the 4Grid migration at a later date. It is very simple and it involves only a very low downtime.
Join us at ITExpo 2010 East
Happy New Year! I hope that you will have an exceptional 2010, much better than 2009.
At 4PSA everything started very fast this year. We will have a very busy Q1, with lots of challenges, which means that is going to be exciting.
The first event in Q1 we are going to join is ITExpo East in Miami that will take place between 20 and 22 January. You are invited to visit our booth #618 anytime. As probably is going to be quite crowded, you can schedule a meeting by sending an email to itexpo@4psa.com.
See you there!
Happy New Year!
On behalf of the 4PSA team I would like to wish you Merry Winter Holidays and a Happy New Year. Thank you for the wonderful collaboration in 2009 and looking forward for an even better one in 2010.
As you probably seen, there were some quiet developments at 4PSA lately that started with a new website and continued with a new product release, VoipNow Core.
4PSA is preparing a lot of new stuff and important improvements for 2010, I am sure that you will like them. But enough with these, just enjoy the holidays!
BTW, we also have a small gift – 15% discount for purchases of new 4PSA software owned licenses.
When you make the order in our online store, please use the discount code new2010.
The discount code is valid until 4 January 2010.
Executive Testimonials
We are rebuilding our online presence (yes, it was necessary) and I am asking you a personal favor. If you have anything to say about us as a company, but especially about our products, we would like to include your testimonial in an area designed for this purpose.
Please comment on this post with the testimonial, followed by your full name, company and job title. We will use these in the new testimonials area, but we are not going to approve these as comments on the post.
Thank you very much for your time!
Open-Xchange for Plesk Now Available for Customers
As you might know, we have partnered with Open-Xchange to integrate VoipNow features with email groupware and have improved teamwork. Open-Xchange is a cool product; it takes your existing mail server and adds groupware on top of it. You have a nice AJAX interface, Exchange like functions, mobility (ActiveSync support), etc. But you better check this demo. That demo is not using the latest skin, the one we contributed a little bit to.
Anyway, I do not want to discuss this integration now, but something more basic and maybe more interesting for all hosters.
What’s the Opportunity?
For providers, Exchange hosting is a big opportunity. Groupware is absolutely required for businesses and mobility is needed by everyone with a smart mobile phone. So, there is great potential on all market segments. Compared to traditional hosting market, hosted Exchange has much higher margins and after all it’s still email business.
Why Not Microsoft Exchange?
Going to Microsoft Exchange hosting is complicated (you must change your email infrastructure) and expensive (hardware, but most importantly monthly license leases). Also, Microsoft is pushing their Online Services to more countries and lowers prices.
If hosting providers use Microsoft Exchange, it is impossible for them to compete with Microsoft on prices and features. Of course, it they want to be simply salespeople for Microsoft and get peanuts, Exchange is the way to go. But there are alternatives.
What We Have for You
If you have Plesk servers and you want to replace the ugly Horde webmail (or whatever email you use) we can do it for you. If you have more than a Plesk server, you can consolidate Webmail on a single server (or on a cluster). All changes made by users in the Plesk interface, like account creation/deletion/edit go automatically to Open-Xchange.
The solution implies some fees for installation and startup, but you will have the Open-Xchange webmail (which is much better than Horde) for FREE. If your customers want to get groupware and mobility, they can easily upgrade and only then you have to pay us a small license fee per customer. But in this case, you will sell that Exchange email account with minimum 5 USD.
To Resume Everything
This is a great way to revive your email business. I bet you are giving it away for free now, isn’t it?
We can handle everything related to Open-Xchange: support, consulting, licensing.
You don’t have to change anything in the email infrastructure.
No more Horde, but without any extra management stuff. Everything is automated.
Customers that do not use groupware or mobility have no charge. Don’t pay anything if you don’t get more from the customer.
For more details, please contact our sales department.
What is VoipNow Pro SIP Trunking Add-on?
We receive lots of questions on sales asking what this product it:
VoipNow extension level SIP Trunking support
Most people find it in the online store and they do not have any clue about it. As you might have learned we will soon release VoipNow Core, the 4Grid solution for delivering SIP trunking, wholesale, media gateway services. VoipNow Professional has never been designed with SIP trunking capabilities, even if we have customers that use it for such services.
The above VoipNow Professional addon does a very simple thing. When enabled on an extension level, you can connect a PBX to that extension (when a DID assigned on that extension is called, it is passed further to the PBX in SIP:To). We added this option because some customers wanted to connect PBX to VoipNow Professional. But if you are serious about SIP trunking, you should implement VoipNow Core.
VoipNow Automation Beta
We launched VoipNow Automation Beta, more details are available here.
Be aware that the beta is part of VoipNow 2.0.4 beta. Do not install or upgrade to this version of VoipNow on production machines!!! You can do this only if you change some paths in installer, but anyway you have been warned!
This beta targets people with some Linux experience, because we do not ship the installation wizards for the online store. Installations instructions are available here.
If you find any issue, do not hesitate to send a bug report.
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