(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — As the adoption of next generation protocol, Internet Protocol Version 6, becomes critical for the future of the Internet, hosting provider The Planet (www.theplanet.com) will be hosting the Texas IPv6 Task Force (www.txv6tf.org), which will be held November 3 and 4 in downtown Houston.
According to The Planet’s Tuesday announcement, more than 100 participants are expected for the free two-day event. Gold Sponsors include the American Registry for Internet Numbers (www.arin.net), Global Crossing (www.globalcrossing.com) and NTT America (www.nttamerica.com).
At 128 bits, IPv6 has a much larger address space than the current standard, IPv4, which is facing the threat of address exhaustion because of its small size. As the current Internet protocol, IPv4, address spaces are exhausted, IPv6 needs to grow much faster than its growth from 2.4 to 4 percent last year for it to meet the growing number of online devices. A number of industry organizations have been trying to draw attention to this issue recently.
Dedicated to the advancement and propagation of the IPv6 Internet Protocol in Texas and its surrounding states, the Texas IPv6 Task Force (or TXv6TF) is a chapter of the IPv6 Forum (www.ipv6forum.com), a world-wide consortium whose mission is to advocate IPv6 by improving technology, market, and deployment user and industry awareness of IPv6. Comprised of individual members rather than corporate sponsors, TXv6TF’s mission is to provide technical leadership and innovative thought for the successful integration of IPv6 into all facets of networking and telecommunications infrastructure.
With the transition to IPv6 already begun, the TXv6TF event provides a forum for participants to learn about emerging technology trends as they prepare their systems for IPv6, which will transform communications over the next 20 years, according to The Planet.
“With the ubiquitous nature of the Internet and growing demands from every corner of the world, there is a reasonable concern among companies about their ability to gain access to IP addresses to support their growing businesses,” The Planet network operations vice president and TXv6TF director Stan Barber said in a statement. “The transition to the new protocol is inevitable, so individuals in the IT arena are faced with the impending challenge of how best to help their companies escalate their adoption plans. Long-term sustainability clearly drives the work of this task force, and the event is designed to arm members and participants with trends from industry leaders.”
Barber will be speaking at the event, as well as the IPv6 Forum’s Latif Ladid, “Ad Hoc Networking” author Charlie E. Perkins, Global Crossing’s Mike Benjamin, NTT America’s Cody Christman, and Secure 64′s Stephen Lagerholm.
Companies and individuals from Texas, its surrounding states and from around the world are invited to participate. The website that registers individuals is hosted on The Planet’s IT infrastructure and is available via IPv6 and IPv4.
Discussions on the implementation of IPv6 have been going on across the globe. For instance, last week’s five-day RIPE Meeting gathered ISPs, network operators and other interested parties from Europe and the surrounding regions in Lisbon, Portugal, to discuss many issues, including IPv6.
