Asterisk Cloud Hosting

Quick, Simple, and Scalable Asterisk Cloud Hosting

What is Asterisk Cloud Hosting?

Asterisk Cloud hosting software from Steadfast Networks allows you to build communications applications by using an open source framework. By using Asterisk, your company can transform an ordinary business computer into a communications server. Essentially, Asterisk is a software version of a private branch exchange (PBX) for a telephone. Just like with regular PBX, telephones that are attached can call each other and connect to other services that enable communication, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the public switched telephone network (PSTN), conference servers, and more. Asterisk is used around the world by companies large and small, as well as call centers and even some governments.

Just like in proprietary PBX systems, our Asterisk Cloud hosting software gives you access to conference calling, voice mail, automatic call distribution, and interactive voice response phone menus. Programming-savvy users also have the ability to add their own functionality, if they wish, by writing custom loadable modules in C, by using Asterisk’s extension languages to write dial plan scripts, or through using any programming language that has the ability to communicate via stdin or stdout or network TCP sockets to implement Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI) programs. Video and VoIP protocols that Asterisk supports include:

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) – Asterisk can act as both a registrar and a gateway between IP phones and the PSTN.
Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP)
H.323

Because Asterisk supports both VoIP and traditional communications services, organizations that employ the software are able to slowly migrate their old systems over to new technologies or just build entirely new telephone systems. The flexibility of Asterisk also allows people to use it in conjunction with PBXes to provide extra features (voice response menus, voice mail, virtual call shops) or lower their overall communications costs through bypassing tolls by making long-distance calls over the internet, or to replace PBXes altogether.

How Can You Get Asterisk Cloud Hosting from Steadfast Networks?

One of the best things about using the Steadfast Networks Cloud Platform is our ongoing relationship with Jumpbox. Through Jumpbox, we offer our clients a wide range of useful open source software, including Asterisk Cloud hosting.

Cloud Platform users who want Asterisk simply need to select the Asterisk JumpBox template. In order to do this, go to Operating System and select Ubuntu, then choose JumpBox Asterisk. You’ll be able to start using this great open source software without any complex setup and installation processes.

System Requirements for Asterisk Cloud Hosting

Asterisk Cloud hosting software was designed to work on Linux originally, but Asterisk today has expanded exponentially to systems like OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, and Mac OS X. There’s even a port known as AsteriskWin32 that runs on Microsoft Windows.

If you are just running a “hobby” system with no more than 5 channels, a system with 400 MHz x86 and 256 MB RAM should be sufficient. For a home office or a small office with fewer than five sets and three lines, and only 5-10 channels, you can use a system with 1 GHz x86 and 512 MB RAM. Medium-size businesses with up to 25 channels will require a system with 3 GHz x86 and 1 GB RAM, and big businesses with over 25 channels are going to need dual CPUs and might even need multiple servers in a distributed architecture.

Tips, Tricks, and Documentation

Documentation for Asterisk can be found on the Asterisk Wiki.