Druid: Open Source Unified Communications Based on Asterisk

A group called Voiceroute just pushed out a product called Druid (actually two products, an open source version and a commercial version) that looks very intriguing. It is based on Asterisk at the core but they've done a lot of work on top of it -- besides just sticking on a useful GUI. This is what I love about the telephony space today -- continuous improvement as folks figure out what they really want. There's a decent little preview/review here. A more thorough explanation of features here. Some ideas for applications here.

So many forms of communications (voice, voicemail, email, IM, mobile, fax), so many ways to leverage it. Now a single IP communications platform based on open source and open standards.

What is Druid? Druid is the premier unified communications platform for enterprises. It allows companies to deploy easily and affordable high endIP communications services using off the shelve commodity hardware and IP phones. Druid covers your enterprise communication needs from IP voice, voicemail, IM all the way to the mobile space.

I love Asterisk and the various things which can be be built with it. But, at its core, (stock) Asterisk excels most at being an engine at the center of a telephony/communications platform. To maximize adoption, the barrier to use must be lowered through improved management interfaces and turnkey features out of the box that reflect what end-users want. There's lots of room for improvement for specific problem domains. That's why Asterisk's flexibility is so powerful and having a lively eco-system around it makes it more and more accessible to a broader base of users. That doesn't mean that Asterisk based solutions aren't ready for prime time today -- they most definitely are. Thankfully, Asterisk's eco-system is strong with solutions such as Fonality, FreePBX, Digium's AsteriskNOW/ABE/AA50, and many others. Oh, and now we have Voiceroute's Druid.

Definitely will be taking a look Druid soon.