Thanks for your kind comments... profile filled out
And just to warn you, I have a habit of being... verbose... at times...
I think it boils down to in some cases a fundamental difference between the existing telephony market (manufacturers, installers, users, etc) vs the IT market- IT guys are used to having large changes happen relatively quickly, which is required when the life cycle of a product may be only 4-5 years at the outside. (Would you use a computer from 1996? Probably not. Would you use a telephone from 1996? Absolutely, it's still as good as one you buy today). I recently had a VoIP client who only hired me because their 15yr old KSU cought fire when they tried to add another extension to it. Other than a few problems with old analog wiring, they loved the thing and were sorry to see it go. I've seen a few clients with 10 year old computer systems, but not many, and they are usually very eager to get up to date.
So as a result, since VoIP technology was being developed on the computer side of things, it's rolled out rather quickly as soon as the products are mature enough to be used and there is demand. Demand especially, VoIP has become a buzzword- a lot of people (customers) don't quite understand how it works, but they know it will probably save them money so they want it. A lot of other customers understand the flexibility it will give them, and they want it even more. Demand springs up overnight, everybody starts making VoIP gear, and this leaves an entire industry going 'WTF just happened?' as their product lines are turned upside down and their industry in general jumps ship into the IT Department side of things...
For those that want to get into VoIP more, a few suggestions-
First, understand that hardware is not software. A standard analog PBX may have modules which either work or don't; VoIP is often based on a computer and there are a thousand more levels of complexity (and thus problems) that go with it. Hardware failures happen, but software related issues (misconfiguration, bug, conflict with something else, network problem, etc) are going to cause most of the issues you have.
To that end- learn computers. Understand basic computer troubleshooting, networking, etc. Especially networking. I can't speak for big manufacturers, but I could guesstimate that a lot of the VoIP server systems are going to be software that will share a server with other things. Asterisk is such a system. If you can come to a clien't site and competently install it on an existing server, you will be a much more valuable worker.
When you learn this- CONCEPTUALIZE, DON'T PROCEDURALIZE. What i mean by that is 'To do X, perform in order steps A B C D'. If you just remember that procedure, and don't understand the concept of what steps A-D do, you will be far less effective. On the other hand, if you understand what the steps do, then it is easy to figure out that to do Y, do steps A D C E.
Anyway i'll stick around and I have email notify turned on, so if any of you have questions about VoIP or Asterisk, ask away
