By Simon Woodhead
Some people use the c-word conversationally. I use it quite sparingly because it is a strong word in most places, and not a very nice one. I’d use it more though if it was slightly less crude as there are many deserving of it! This last year though, things got a lot easier because everyone I might have reserved it for has taken to calling themselves a CPaaS instead. In most cases, they’re a right CPaaS!
Now for them, this isn’t derogatory. They’re charlatans, and often believe their own spin. Apparently back-to-backing an SMS API to someone else’s makes you a CPaaS. Apparently, being a traditional carrier but writing your annual report in a certain style, makes you a CPaaS. Apparently though, not having any infrastructure at all is also justified because you’re a CPaaS. Yes, indeed they all are!
Of course, whilst to the rest of us they just look a CPaaS, to them they’re a CPaaS, a statement to the world that they’re like (or they think better) than Twilio. Sometimes this is because they want that Twilio multiple on their share price, or often to sound cooler and cleverer than they really are, or at other times it is to make a failed company look viable in the hope another charlatan will buy it. None of these are remotely real. None of these serve the consumer of what they call CPaaS.
Of course, there are some genuine alternatives to Twilio out there and we have friends in the space. They’re doing great and tangible things with programmable communications, often in a quiet and understated way – so I’m not knocking the space or the intent of it generally at all. Indeed, by the standard set by others, we could more than justify calling ourselves CPaaS, especially the Sipcentric platform with its real-time in-call software control. We never have though, as sadly the word has been contaminated and the space just reeks of BS.
But who needs a CPaaS anyway when there is open-source awesomeness! Dave Horton, who won a SimCon Award for the “Best New Open Source Project” with the fantastic Drachtio, has possibly done it again with Jambonz. He’s created an entire CPaaS platform and open-sourced it. So now you can be a CPaaS too, or moreover, the features you may be paying Twilio for today, or arbitraging a subset to a right CPaaS who’s copied their API in part, you can do yourself or for your customers. You just need a decent carrier to integrate with and we’re here to help with that bit!
Dave launched Jambonz this week at TADSummit Asia, and as if that in itself wasn’t awesome enough, he demoed it in a combination that rivals Jennifer Lawrence on the foredeck of a Sunseeker in my mind – using Node-red and Simwood.
As you might tell, I’m pretty excited about this and that hasn’t wained since Dave first described what he intended last year. We commit to being as supportive as we can of this project and hope you will love it too.
Here’s Dave giving his own views on CPaaS and launching Jambonz.
Do check out the other great talks from TADSummit Asia too, organised by the force of nature (and fellow SimCon Award winner), Mr Alan Quayle.
