The IPv6 movement has been years in the making. So many years, in fact, that it has hardly been a movement at all. While a handful of regions, primarily in Asia and pockets of Europe, have embraced IPv6, it has been otherwise largely ignored, something to be considered later while we exhaust IPv4 assets. This thinking has clearly stunted the growth of IPv6, presenting opportunities to early adopters and IPv6 facilitators and indigestion for the procrastinators.
In a recent article published by Network World, I explore the inevitability of IPv6 migration, who is poised to benefit, challenges and transition insights. Some excerpts…
Global Network Integrators (Early Adopters) Positioned to Have Greatest Impact
Even early adopters of IPv6 as a network service understand that demand doesn’t exist across the board today, but will soon. Akhil Verma, Director of Global Product Management for Inteliquent (formerly Neutral Tandem / Tinet), says “IPv6 service providers lack the content, infrastructure and applications to make a good business case today and has contributed significantly to the lack of IPv6 adoption.” Once the inevitable IPv6 levy breaks, an overwhelming number of network and content providers will be scrambling (and likely overpaying) to get IPv6 equipped and compliant – a potential boon for those few IPv6 veteran IPv6 enablers, such as Inteliquent.
“We have been doing IPv6 for over a decade now, and have been enabling it for our customers on demand as a complimentary component of the services we offer,” Verma says. “In turn, this means any IP Transit customer can get IPv6 service enabled on existing ports so they can have dual stack access at any time. We continue to enable services for new IP transit customers, but we see a very low demand. It could be an education issue, financial justification issue or some other factor. Whatever it is, it is stopping customers from making the move.”
Making the Move
According to Dr. Kate Lance, Communications Manager, IPv6Now, an Australian based
company specializing in IPv6 assistance, training and consulting, in future years we will look back on this IPv6 debate with astonishment and ask - how could anyone conceivably argue against a technology that offers secure communication to people and devices on a breathtaking scale? How could anyone not want a technology that offers an incremental leap in Internet capability and capacity that may be as significant as the development of the Internet itself?
Other issues explored in the article include…
IPv6 Challenges
Operational Challenges
Transition and Implementation Challenges
Financial investment justification
Internal Educational Challenges
Availability of knowledgeable workforce:
Transition Insights (Making the Move Better)
To read the full article go HERE
Inteliquent IPv6, go HERE
IPv6Now, go HERE
JSA, go HERE
