Windows IP PBX in 10 Minutes?

Hak5 claims a Windows based IP-PBX can be set up in 10 minutes using software by 3CX. You might wonder why somebody who is fairly technical and in the "do it yourself" mode would not choose to use Asterisk. The answer is that some people will be able to create the functionality in Windows faster than they can using Linux.

Apparently 3CX offers a "free" download and then incremental payment for features such as unified messaging or call parking, for example. Hak5 reports the auto-provisioning to a Linksys Linksys SPA962 IP phone was flawless.

It's just another example of a sort of inversion of value in communications, where important communications functionality and value are very low cost, despite providing high value. It is conventional--and largely correct--wisdom that value is "moving up the stack."

That does not mean "pipes" and "infrastructure" such as call control are unimportant. People might not think electricity is unimportant, but watch the disruption when it suddenly fails. Still, even carriers and service providers increasingly are facing issues familiar to people working in the software business: lots of really valuable utility now is widely available at low cost.

So businesses have to built on incremental value using the still-essential but "utility-like" infrastructure. It's something like a million lines of code becoming an inexpensive foundation and value and revenue built on new apps that might, in some cases, require only scores of lines of additional code.

Setting up 16 phones took about two hours, including a firmware upgrade, Hak5 reports. Basic user maintenance apparently is simple enough that administration can be turned over to people who aren't IT staffers.

"I really would suggest anyone with a Windows machine lying around the house who has a need for a basic PBX for use with either a VOIP provider, or a PSTN gateway look at 3CX," says Matt Lestock, Hak5 contributor and a systems architect.

The analogy is the "freemium" business model, where basic and valuable features are offered "at no incremental cost" and fees support enhanced features.