Deploy360 23 September 2016

Why you need IPv6 and the sad tale of an ISP that didn’t deploy it

By Kevin MeynellFormer Senior Manager, Technical and Operational Engagement

IPv6-imageWe’ve recently come across a couple of videos about IPv6 that we think are worth sharing.

The first comes from Ethan Banks of Packet Pushers who makes the case for why you finally really do need IPv6. Here he argues that where IPv6 is not deployed, it’s starting to have a real business impact in a number of regional markets. As IPv4 reaches a stage of imminent exhaustion, it’s becoming necessary to buy address space at a significant cost, or use multiple layers of Network Address Translation that degrade performance and break applications.

In many cases, users already have IPv6 capability as many mobile operators have been deploying IPv6 for a while, whilst other ISPs particularly in US but also parts of Europe, are also rolling it out. Many operating systems including Windows, even prefer using IPv6 for transport, so there no reason not to support IPv6 on your web sites and other services. Indeed, you’re increasingly likely to be cutting off potential users if you don’t.

Conversely, take a look at the sad tale of an ISP that didn’t deploy IPv6 that was produced by the University of Guadalajara for LACNIC 23. This relates the tale of a large incumbent ISP that decided not to deploy IPv6 whilst a smaller one did. The result is that it loses customers be cause it no longer has sufficient IPv4 addresses, it cannot participate in state tenders that require IPv6 to be supported, and eventually its engineers and then sales team leave for the smaller ISP. Whilst real names have not been used in the video, it’s purportedly based on a true story and should therefore serve as a cautionary tale.

One more video to view if you’re interested in deploying IPv6 is Clinton Work’s presentation at NANOG 65 on deploying IPv6 at scale. Here he presents TELUS’s experiences of planning and deploying IPv6, the technical and training challenges, and their reasons for doing it.

We at Deploy360 want to support those interested in deploying IPv6, so please take a look at our Start Here page to understand how you can get started.

 

Disclaimer: Viewpoints expressed in this post are those of the author and may or may not reflect official Internet Society positions.

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