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Earlier today pal Cory Andrews broke the news about the newest SMB VoIP product from Cisco, the SPA8800.
The Cisco SPA8800 is an affordable VoIP Gateway option for small medium businesses and VoIP service providers. The Cisco SPA8800 is SIP based and features four (4) FXS ports for connecting traditional telephones and or fax machines.
The Cisco SPA8800 also features four (4) FXO ports for connecting POTS lines, allowing PSTN connectivity for VoIP phone systems. In addition, the SPA8800 features a convenient amphenol connector interface on the back of the gateway allowing for an easy connection to a telco punch-down block or mini RJ11 patch panel.
The SPA8800 comes with the familiar Linksys web based GUI and in playing with unit, even inexperienced users shouldn’t have much trouble setting up and maintain the gateway.
At price of retail price of $549.99, the Cisco SPA8800 is in the middle of the road price wise, which begs the question, “What’s the big deal here Garrett?”
Well, the thing that interests me is the accompanying configuration guide for those using Asterisk. The guide, which will be made available to general public, intricately details how to set-up the SPA8800 with Asterisk.
Given that Cisco has never fully embraced open source, this new guide accompanying the SPA8800 could be a sign that this is going to change (at least with their SMB product lines).
For more information about the SPA8800, check out the full details here.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
They need it… but don’t count on it. My first reaction was to ask “what SMB product lines?”, but then I realized you meant Cisco having bought Linksys. Because Cisco’s solutions, while amazingly scalable and clearly aimed at the large enterprise market, are painfully overcomplicated for the SMB market. They still just don’t “get it”.
Cisco’s own Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) solutions, for what it’s worth, are really nothing more than enterprise grade IBM servers with vanity plates, running Red Hat Enterprise Linux with all the open-source that entails, along with whatever constitutes the UCM software itself (they’re not real keen on letting you under the hood on their boxes, so you don’t really get shell access). So Cisco is well familiar with using open source itself, though a bit in the same vein as Apple. They use it, but not sure how much they contribute back.
And unlike Apple, where you have full shell access in Mac OS X, can use gcc and pretty much build any open-source software you want on the box, with CUCM you have no such love. If Cisco doesn’t provide you a way to do something via their web-based (Tomcat) user interface or their IOS-like command line (extremely limited command set), your options tend to be to find some third party software ($$$) that interfaces with the CUCM software and does what you want. That, or start digging around and finding out the various interfaces they provide (XML-RPC and the like) from the network side, and run some code on another box to interface with their software that way. Because hacking on their actual box just isn’t going to happen.
It’s nice that the Linksys division is allowed to play nice with the open-source telephony market. There’s hope yet that Cisco will one day truly “get it” and know that their current enterprise business model simply does not address the SMB market. But right now their missteps just mean more business for others.
@ Frank
That is correct. Cisco has fully absorbed the Linksys unit and as such the Linksys products became “Cisco SMB.” Which is also different from the UC500 stuff, BTW.
At the end of the day Cisco is a big machine that is the envious position of being able to dictate the market. This means, as you pointed out, that they can do things to make full control difficult.
However, they’ve been getting progressively better and in speaking with folks over there, more progress is still to come.
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