(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The slow adoption of IPv6, the next generation of the Internet Protocol, is worthy of the attention of all businesses and organizations around the globe concerned with their future network operations. The Number Resource Organization (www.nro.net), the official representative of the five Regional Internet Registries, which oversee the allocation of all Internet number resources, has announced that they are quickly running out, with less than 10 percent of available IPv4 addresses remaining unallocated.
The set of IP technical rules that define how devices communicate over a network are currently available in two versions, IPv4 and IPv6. The NRO has been actively promoting IPv6 deployment for several years through grassroots outreach, speaking engagements, conferences and media outreach. IPv6 includes a modern numbering system that provides a much larger address pool than IPv4. According to its Thursday announcement, this small pool of existing IP addresses marks a critical moment in IPv4 address exhaustion.
Despite IPv6 allocations increasing by nearly 30 percent in 2009, with so few IPv4 addresses remaining, the NRO is urging all Internet stakeholders to take immediate action by planning for the necessary investments required to deploy IPv6.
“This is a key milestone in the growth and development of the global Internet,” NRO chairman Axel Pawlik said in a statement. “The limited IPv4 addresses will not allow us enough resources to achieve the ambitions we all hold for global Internet access. The deployment of IPv6 is a key infrastructure development that will enable the network to support the billions of people and devices that will connect in the coming years.”
To promote IPv6 adoption, the NRO is calling upon governments, vendors, enterprises, telecoms operators, and end users, to fulfill their roles in IPv6 adoption.
Businesses should provide IPv6-capable services and platforms, including web hosting and equipment. Software and hardware vendors should implement IPv6 support in their products to guarantee they are available at production standard when needed. Governments should show leadership by making their own content and services available over IPv6 and encouraging IPv6 deployment efforts in their countries. Finally, citizens and user groups should demand that all services they receive from their ISPs and vendors are IPv6-ready.
“Many decision makers don’t realize how many devices require IP addresses – mobile phones, laptops, servers, routers, the list goes on,” NRO secretary Raul Echeberria stated. “The number of available IPv4 addresses is shrinking rapidly, and if the global Internet community fails to recognize this, it will face grave consequences in the very near future. As such, the NRO is working to educate everyone, from network operators to top executives and government representatives, about the importance of IPv6 adoption.”
In the past year, SoftLayer Technologies (www.softlayer.com) began offering native IPv6 support across all its data centers in Dallas, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Though a partnership with NTT America (www.nttamerica.com), Internet exchange services provider Switch and Data (www.switchanddata.com) began offering direct access to the NTT Communications Global IP Network, the world’s only commercial grade global Tier-1 IPv6 backbone operating across four continents at the time.
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