Richard Jimmerson of the Internet registry ARIN delivered a presentation on the depletion of IPv4 address space, and the growing need to adopt IPv6.
Let’s start this one with the bottom line (something that was discussed in a very Q&A with Martin Levy of Hurricane Electric, in our most recent WHIR magazine issue), which is that IPv4 address space is going to run out, and it’s going to happen in the next couple years.
IPv6 has to be adopted across the board in order for the Internet to continue growing, and it’s not backwards compatible with IPv4. As a result, both protocols are going to have to be maintained simultaneously for many years.
Customers are going to start demanding v6 at some point, and if you (as a hosting provider) want to stay in business, this is something you’re really going to have to deal with.
What Jimmerson would like the 90 percent of hosting providers who haven’t already fully deployed support for v6, rather than be the company that tries to stand it all up at the last minute.
If you wait, eventually (maybe three years down the road) your hosting customers are going to find that people on v6 networks aren’t going to be able to reach their websites, and you’re going to know why.
Regional internet registries have been issuing IPv6 addresses for several years, and thousands of companies have already had v6 addresses issued.
He says it is no longer a reasonable expectation that if you put something up on IPv4, everyone on the Internet can see it. That’s true to a limited extent today. It will be very true in two years.
Making yourself IPv6 enabled now could prepare you to take on the customers fleeing providers who aren’t up to date when it becomes a problem.
An important consideration – anything you’re buying right now, be it a router, switch or whatever, make sure it’s IPv6 capable, even if you’re not going to enable it right away. You don’t want to add components to your network that you’re going to have to replace later.
Jimmerson says another thing that hosts can do is participate in policy mailing lists and in gathering and distributing information on the issue. Here are a couple of URLs he posted:
ww.arin.net/participate (the mailing list)
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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