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IPv6: Get off your IPv4 Butts!

Mon, 2008-12-08 01:35 — webmaster

No $$ = no IPv6
So, why isn't IPv6 adoption more widespread? There are pockets of IPv6 migration in certain parts of the world but while the reasons for moving over to the 128-bit address space afforded by IPv6 are numerous, the speed of adoption has been glacial to say the least. Is it because the technology isn't there yet? No. Vendors like Cisco and Microsoft have integrated IPv6 into their offerings for years now. Transition mechanisms such as NAT-PT, dual-stack devices, 6to4 tunneling, IPv6 tunnel brokers, ISATAP, and Teredo tunneling have been around for a while so there must be some other reason why IPv6 has not been in the forebrain of the Internet. The reason is money. Sounds cynical to say it, but until corporations see IPv6 (or lack thereof) as a money issue then we are unlikely to see its acceptance into the mainstream of the network conciousness. We have become so adept at making do with the critical shortage of existing IPv4 addresses through mechanisms such as NAT and RFC 1918 private addresses, that the burning requirement for immediate transition to IPv6 has fallen by the wayside.

Government's Role
Back to the government, and its role with respect to IPv6. Good government governs. This is a simple truth. Until governments worldwide band together and enact legislation that requires commerical entitiies to adopt IPv6, or at least be IPv6-ready in a big way we are unlikely to see widespread IPv6 adoption worldwide in the short term. Only when global address depletion hits a critical point will corporations, network service providers, and governments get their collective thumbs out of their bums and do the right thing. Governments are responsible for doing the right thing and to act in the public interest, regardless of whether there is any immediate commercial benefit to do doing that right thing. Common sense, not prescience, dictates, that the right thing is to prepare the Internet for the future. Arguably the Internet has become a fundamental pillar of the global economy. Government is looking for ways to boost employment in today's economic reality of global recession. President-elect Barack Obama of the United States recently announced an initiative upon which he will act shortly after his inaugaration in January of 2009, that will see improvements to that nation's road infrastructure even grander in scale than the original Interstate highway system. His stated purpose for this initiative is to employ citizens in a worthy cause and thereby both lessen the effects of the recession on the unemployment rate and (perhaps more importantly) upgrade the nation's crumbling road infrastructure.

IPv6 is the next level of Internet infrastructure. Why cannot governments take heed and take action? They must take heed to the upcoming IPv4 crisis. And they must take action before it is too late!

Some Useful Links
For further information about IPv6 and its adoption, why not check out some of these clickable hyperlinks?

/Eric