Digium-Certified Asterisk Professional???

chmod

Digium-Certified Asterisk Professional.(dcap)

The dCAP test consists of a 150 question web-based exam concerning Asterisk and Asterisk-related technology, and a practical lab exam in which you are asked to configure a PBX according to a given specification. A minimum score of 75% is required to pass the web exam.

To pass the dCAP exam, it is recommended that you have read Asterisk: The Future of Telephony by O'Reilly, have actual working knowledge of setting up and maintaining an Asterisk servers and systems.

Who have taken this exam?
Any experience with digium/asterisk exams?

mikej412

Heresy! Its non-Cisco! CallManager Rules! Off Topic!! Off Topic!!

That said -- it does seem to be something to do if you are an Asterisk Consultant to differentiate yourself from all the other Asterisk experts.

From the Cisco side, if you had the certification (and kept a straight face) you might be better able to "convince" your customers they really are better off spending the big bucks for CallManager.

mikej412

Showing Customer considering Asterisk the web site where it says part of the certification is learning the stable versions of Asterisk?

Slowhand

mikej412 wrote:

Showing Customer considering Asterisk the web site where it says part of the certification is learning the stable versions of Asterisk?

Now, now. . . we should always use stable software, as opposed to beta or test versions. Of course, no one ever said anything about using stable engineers. . .

chmod

Asterisk and aheeva are very good software.
I do like Call manager, but its too expensive.
We have integrated the asterisk with call manager, and we are also planning to grow with digium/asterisk.
If we choose cisco and we grow with cisco call manager we would have to pay 350k$ to cisco(including IPCC and licences/CALs )not including te servers, and if we choose digium/asterisk we would have to pay 100k$ including the servers.

mikej412

chmod wrote:

If we choose cisco and we grow with cisco call manager we would have to pay 350k$ to cisco(including IPCC and licences/CALs )not including te servers, and if we choose digium/asterisk we would have to pay 100k$ including the servers.

But this is a Cisco forum! Spending more on Cisco is GOOD! The more Cisco stuff out there, the more Cisco Certified people they'll need!

chmod wrote:

We have integrated the asterisk with call manager

Yeah -- the other reason why a Cisco Professional (or Expert) might consider the certification is for those rare occasions where they may have to integrate Asterisk with CallManager.... like when the customer realizes the "error of their way" and decide to "upgrade" to CallManager.

chmod

Actually, we integrated both systems *cisco call manager with asterisk* just because of the Cisco hardphones.
But again, its too expensive, its a good product its but too expensive.
So far im completely satisfied with digium/asterisk and aheeva.

Johnny 5

A lot of mid-size Customers end up between a rock and a hard place when looking at an IP PBX. The pricetag for CME/CUE is reasonable, but you lose a lot of features that Asterisk provides for free, namely Unified Messaging. CallManager/Unity is great and will do anything you want it to, but you're looking at $20K US just for Hardware and software alone. And you'll still need CCVP-level consultant do do it correctly. Not to mention the continuous patching and security risk if of having more Windows boxes to manage.

rossonieri#1

hi Johnny 5, good comment

and chmod, i feel sorry - i have the same problem as you are

no offense Mike

chmod

We are implementing asterink and aheeva to manage a call centre, nad so far im very hapy with asterisk, like most of the open source solutions you can do everything you want with linux.

rossonieri#1

thats the spirit chmod

with newer tools - it makes us easier to integrate multi-platform systems.

have you heard CENTRIFY?
they have a nice approach in instead of doing SAMBA auth - we can centrally manage the linux environment using windows DC.

for me, the same perspective goes to voice - feel free to decide what to use - instead of end-to-end one vendor shopping center

cheers.

chmod

rossonieri#1 wrote:

thats the spirit chmod

with newer tools - it makes us easier to integrate multi-platform systems.

have you heard CENTRIFY?
they have a nice approach in instead of doing SAMBA auth - we can centrally manage the linux environment using windows DC.

for me, the same perspective goes to voice - feel free to decide what to use - instead of end-to-end one vendor shopping center

cheers.

Im reading about centrify and sounds liken an interesting solutions, i will give it a shot soon.
And again asterisk rulz, cisco call manager and IPCC and UNITY and.....are good but they are also too expensive.

networker050184

Im reading about centrify and sounds liken an interesting solutions, i will give it a shot soon.
And again asterisk rulz, cisco call manager and IPCC and UNITY and.....are good but they are also too expensive.

Well you know the old saying, you get what you pay for. Callmanager my be pricey but it is the best and Cisco provides superiour support for their products. You can use cheaper or free solutions, but when you run into a major issue (not an addministrator mistake, but a real hard or software issue) its nice to have the support Cisco provides.

ITdude

You can use cheaper or free solutions, but when you run into a major issue (not an addministrator mistake, but a real hard or software issue) its nice to have the support Cisco provides.

Amen to that!

chmod

I'm not married with open source solutions neither with vendor solutions.
But i ask you the following have you ever been at cisco TAC,microsoft or HP's solution center.
The support for bugs and incompatibility, takes the same thing to be solved than a new stable version to be released.
For example dan bernstein DNS or qmail server has not released a patch in years because of the stability.
How often cisco or MS releases a patch or service packs?.
I love cisco catalyst and active directory, but i wouldn't say that a vendor solution is better just because you are paying.

networker050184

It is not better just because you are paying. It's better because of the support. Any problems I've had with any equipment Cisco has always had a solution in a decent ammount of time. If you use open source who is going to give you support? A lot of people don't add things like this into the budget. If you buy a cheap system with cheap or no suporrt you will probably end up replacing the whole thing out of pocket if a hardware issue arises. Just keep things like warrenty and service agreements in mind when you do your budget.

chmod

networker050184 wrote:

It is not better just because you are paying. It's better because of the support. Any problems I've had with any equipment Cisco has always had a solution in a decent ammount of time. If you use open source who is going to give you support? A lot of people don't add things like this into the budget. If you buy a cheap system with cheap or no suporrt you will probably end up replacing the whole thing out of pocket if a hardware issue arises. Just keep things like warrenty and service agreements in mind when you do your budget.

This definitely is not going to happen with asterisk.
Right now a lot of service provider are using asterisk.

kagiso1984

Good day ladies and gentlemen, I'm honoured to be posting for the very first time.
With reference to the dCAP/Cisco post, I'd like to raise awareness on what is called vendor-stereotyping.
Yes, it's true, Cisco is a great product and I'm certified myself. But other vendors deserve credit too, and when it comes to VoIP, I believe asterisk/digium deserves credit. I have read their book, and I am reading it for the second time and I must say the content is awesome. For the fact that it is built on an open source OS, its a bonus.

Before we jump into conclusion, I'd suggest we do thorough research and stop being stereotype, and for the record some companies make it close to impossible for Cisco certified engineers to score a job. There's no need to put one vendor on pedestals and the other in a pit.

Just a wake up call, and by the way I'm also pro-Cisco and was first certified in 2008, so I know the product well...
But when it comes to PBXs, Asterisk rocks and its free...

networker050184

Well, you are replying to an eight year old thread. Obviously a lot has changed with vendors in that time.

The key point remains though. If you need world class products with world class service you probably don't want to go with a free product with minimal support.

shodown

Since this post was brought up, I offer asterisk service as part of my product portfolio. My 2 cents.

For simple companies (key word simple not size), asterisk is a great phone system if install by competent staff. When you start getting complex and need ACD's, good reporting, IM, Video its best to go with known vendors. I have installed a few asterisk systems in my data center and they are pretty much hands off for the simple companies I mentioned.