IPv6 acceleration - what does it mean for large users?
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Posted Sun 28 September 2008 @ 5:17 p.m. by Ernie Newman
Internet NZ has called for New Zealand to "lead the world" in the shift from the old IPv4 Internet address protocol, to IPv6, according to this article in Computerworld last Thursday.
Now I think we all realised vaguely that at some time soon the world's stock of the old IPv4 numbers is going to run out. There's an understanding that "first world" countries will make the transition first, so as to release the residue of the old numbers to developing countries.
That sounds admirable. So - if you make the bold assumption that New Zealand is still in the former group - morally we should be at least an early adopter in the transition.
Whether we should "lead the world" is a bit more subjective. Leading the world where it suits the commercial needs of our users is one thing, but conversely we don't want to see users stampeded into world leadership just for the fun of it. Remember Kyoto? I had a good conversation on Friday with Keith Davidson at Internet NZ and I'm fairly sure that isn't the intention. Nonetheless, I'll reserve final judgement until I hear views from a few large TUANZ members.
So what does the transition mean in a practical sense for a major NZ corporate network?
The first job appears to be to check whether you have any legacy equipment that is not IPv6-compliant. If so, plan on bringing forward its replacement. Then you need to plan an orderly transition in the numbering. There's a beginners guide and a good "how to" Web site although I'd have to say the implication within the latter is that to make the change you first need to attend a whole lot of events, which I doubt is the intention!
The good news is that there are lots and lots of IPv6 addresses available. There were only 4 billion addresses available in IPv4 - the people who allowed us to go down that track were obviously short sighted! IPv6 boasts 340 trillion trillion trillion of these - not a number I can really relate to even on payday, but it sounds like about enough for the world to get by on for a few years.
So if IPv6 isn't yet on your corporate radar, better put it there. Let TUANZ know if you want us to give members support in any specific way.
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