March 24, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Dedicated hosting provider The Planet (theplanet.com), and telecommunications provider NTT America (nttamerica.com), announced on Monday that The Planet will give its more than 22,000 customers access to IPv6, the next-generation Internet protocol. The companies have begun developing the project, and The Planet expects to announce availability later this year.
Launched in 2001, IPv6 provides a significant improvement over the current IPv4. The technology increases address space, offers support for mobile devices and improves the quality of service and data security.
"As the Internet grows in complexity and becomes even more ubiquitous, we're looking to the future so that we are fully prepared to meet the vast needs of our customers," says Stan Barber, VP of network operations at The Planet. "Working with NTT America allows us to add the considerable benefits of IPv6 to The Planet's network and to help our customers prepare for the continued impact the Internet will have on their companies."
In the press release, The Planet says it is one of the first hosting companies to announce its plans for IPv6. By adding NTT America's IPv6 transit to The Planet network, the Web host says it will be able to give hosting customers an efficient, dual-stack approach for using both IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously.
NTT Communications Group has been directly involved with developing and deploying IPv6 technology since 1996. The company has been providing commercial IPv6 managed services solutions since 2001 with IPv6 transit services, and then in 2005 with the first IPv6 managed firewall solution.
The company's IPv6 Gateway services are available around the world and enables enterprises to connect to the world's only commercial-grade global tier 1 IPv6 backbone, which operates in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
