NBE now available on Linux

Today, Sangoma launched its NetBorder Express (NBE) Gateway product on the Linux operating system. The Windows version has been available for a long time, and has been successfully integrated and deployed by leading application vendors worldwide. Here are just a few of the application vendors who have adopted NBE on Windows that we have announced in the recent months: 3CX, Brekeke, Dialexia, Genesys, PBXnSIP, VoiceServe, Voxeo, … And there are plenty of others that we can’t name at this time. Our Linux announcement today complements the products’ platform compatibility and will serve many Linux-based SIP applications.

One of the leading customers for this is pbxnsip. While Sangoma and pbxnsip have served joint customers in Windows for a while now, the Linux-based NBE takes the partnership to a whole new level. pbxnsip has been anticipating this NBE product to launch a new set of all-in-one, cost effective PBX appliances that are designed around NBE. Having a great customer launch products based on NBE for Linux is pretty cool way for us get out of the gate!

NBE provides telephony interfaces, from 2 analog ports all the way to 960 digital ports on a single system, to any SIP-based application. The product includes commercial telephony protocol stacks, a management interface for installation, configuration and control. Additionally, NBE offers users a flexible routing rules engine to implement SIP-based load balancing and failover. And the product talks standard SIP, so it can talk to any app that supports that protocol, whether it is a proprietary app or an open source app.

Of course, Sangoma telephony cards can still be used directly with popular open-source projects such as Asterisk, FreeSwitch and others without NetBorder Express; but if one wants the extra scalability (up to 960 ports per system), management and configurability, one can now choose to use NBE on Linux to interface with their Open Source applications, as opposed to the traditional interface for these cards (ZAPTEL and others). We think NBE is a great complement to open source telephony projects as well as commercial products.

Getting the Fax Straight

Today, Sangoma and Commetrex announced that the companies are working together to deliver fax-server solutions to OEMs. This is significant in two ways: First it means Commetrex is letting go of its own TDM interface hardware in favor of Sangoma’s more complete and more cost effective TDM board product line. Second, it means Sangoma now has a reputable solution partner in the fax server space, selling into a market that just wasn’t seriously touched by Sangoma before. This is clearly a win-win proposition!

Here is how Tom Ray from Commetrex explains their decision process… “For years, Commetrex has shipped a limited range of PCI telephony boards, so this announcement marks a major shift in the company’s strategy. We have recently landed some significant design wins in the IP enterprise-fax market with BladeWare’s value proposition of high function and performance with an unbeatable price. But every one of these OEMs would like to enjoy similar competitive advantages when a PSTN interface is required. These OEMs have a worldwide customer base; systems range from two to hundreds of ports. This means not just analog and E1/T1 boards, but ISDN PRI and BRI for the EU market, plus global homologations. We knew we had to get there, and get there fast. Then the Sangoma folks told us that not only did they already have everything we needed, but that they could sell it to us for less than we could produce it. We were sold! Another consideration was Sangoma’s support for Windows. There are multiple sources for telephony interface boards, but many only support Linux. Sangoma’s support for Windows and Linux, and their simplified APIs with ISDN PRI support made the decision even easier.”

One can check out the Commetrex offering at http://www.commetrex.com/BladeWare.html


Everyone is excited about this one. I hope it gets the success we anticipate.